Dear Parishioners,

Prayer is a key element of our spirituality and who we are as God's People.   There are different forms and styles of prayer from contemplation to memorization.   There are formal and informal.   We can use words, silence, sounds, objects, etc.   Is there any correct way or style to pray?   No.

What then is important in our prayer?   It is to have a familiarity with God.   This we find in the first reading from Genesis.   Abraham goes back and forth with God to save the good people of Sodom.   Can you imagine yourself being Abraham and keep asking God what if there are only fifty good people?   Forty-five good people?   Forty good people?   Finally, what if there are only ten good people?   Abraham goes back-and-forth with God six times!   Abraham truly had a familiarity with God and felt comfortable with God to speak with him on such personal terms.

In today's Lucan gospel account, Jesus was praying in a certain place.   Not in the temple.   Not formal prayer.   When he finished, a disciple approached him and asked him to teach them to pray as he did – spontaneous and from the heart, in any place at any time.   And Jesus also teaches us to have a familiarity with God by calling him "Father".

Do we have that same familiarity – intimacy – in our prayer with God?   Or do we keep God at arm's distance?   How do we speak with friends of the problems, joys, expectations, questions, etc. we have?   It usually is on a personal level.   So should our dialogue, communication with God.

Sometimes people pray to change God's mind or to inform God of what is occurring in their lives.   God knows it.   The purpose of prayer, according to St. Augustine, is to change our mind, heart, attitude – not God's.   "The one who prays often, changes often."

I share this thought with you this which I recently found regarding prayer.   "We pray because the words we utter in God's presence are the breathing that sustains our lives…Why pray? Because the day that I cease to pray, I cease to live and to be who I am before God and others."

Pay attention to how you pray.   Are you intimate, persevering, daring in your prayer as Abraham and Jesus?   Because of your prayer are you changed and changed often in your approach to life, others, events and the environment?   Are you more forgiving?   Do you love one another, especially your enemies?

Peace,

Fr. Gene