Timing prayer

When it comes to praying, we often encounter the following difficulties: what to talk to God about, what materials to bring, how to carry on with a theme or style in our prayer, and how to make that conversation fruitful and transforming.

Many of these concerns are in fact very positive. They reveal that the soul has a genuine desire to develop a relationship with God and is not satisfied with just making petitions for one’s material and emotional needs.

The saints have always made simple and practical recommendations when it comes to growing in our life of prayer: you learn to run by running, to swim by swimming, to love by loving. So too with prayer, the same idea applies.

And what of those who may already have somehow negotiated the difficulties above? Does it mean that they have little difficulty in carrying out this spiritual and ascetical means for holiness?

Yes and no.

Yes, because in their commitment to this spiritual exercise, they naturally acquire a taste for prayer. In the process, they acquire the habit of focusing, reflecting and formulating the necessary resolutions for their spiritual life and apostolate.

But also no and not yet. Until we get to Heaven, there’s no end to our struggle to improve in this intimate dialogue with Jesus. Therefore, there is a lot of room to improve the quality of how one prays and how he carries out God’s plan conveyed to him through prayer.

There is one subtle problem that we –both beginners and proficient– may encounter during these silent conversations with God: it is timing prayer rather than praying time.

The time given and set for prayer is essential. Prayer, like a seed, germinates when it is given the right ambience and time to grow. If one whimsically changes the ‘atmosphere’ of prayer, then it would be more difficult to have a life of prayer. Likewise, setting a time for our dialogue with God cannot be so rigid that we become fixated with the execution of the act, rather than the transformation that the act must produce in the praying person.

Whether one is a neophyte at praying or has already acquired a more stable praying habit, one always has to face the daily challenge of balancing his noble earthly duties with the time dedicated to prayer. This is not only the case of delaying prayer for a later time, shortening it because there are no clear and inspiring results or prolonging it because one is emotionally motivated.

The clear and present danger of prayer lies in converting something spiritual into something materially processed from beginning to end. On our part, we are truly the ones setting the time and space for prayer. But we must recall that St. Paul said that we actually pray because it is God’s Spirit who prays in each of us and teaches us what to say to God.

Jesus teaches us to grow in our dependence in the Holy Spirit when praying. In St. John’s Gospel He says: “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Prayer is where we are born in the Spirit, because we allow Him to guide, enlighten and convert us. Thus, after having done everything expected of us, we must then learn how to abandon what goes on before, during and after prayer in the hands of the Paraclete.

This will remind us not to overemphasize on the material time dedicated to prayer. All that God, through the Holy Spirit, waits for is to dispose ourselves to see and carry out His Will in and through prayer. Once we have done this, we strive our best to pray that time, and leave the best timing to the Holy Spirit.