"For me prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look towards Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy." - Saint Therese of Lisieux
Yesterday a friend said to me, "love is prayer" and those simple words found a spot in my heart. Truth has a way of doing that to us. Prayer is communication with God; raising our minds and hearts to our Father in heaven. When we pray, when we lift our minds and hearts to God the Father, we show our love for Him.
Without communication with another, there can be no relationship. Relationships vary throughout life and even with different individuals. I have friends I see maybe once a month, some I see almost daily. Not surprisingly, I am much closer to the friends I see on a daily basis than the ones I only see once a month. We obviously communciate more frequently and therefore, have a stronger bond. This makes sense, right? The strength of your communication with another will determine the depth of your relationship.
What kind of relationship would you have with your spouse if you only communicated once a week? Probably not a very good one. In fact, you probably wouldn't have a very good relationship with one another if you only communicated with your spouse once a day. In a good spousal relationship you will communicate throughout the day with one another, even if just briefly. It's how you stay connected with each other.
This works the same with God. If we need to communicate with our spouses throughout the day to keep our relationship healthy, how much more important is it to communicate with God? We need to be communicating with our Creator, our God, our Father, throughout the day. Prayer should be our first "act" each day and our last one each night and frequently in between. Relationship with God is not Mass on Sundays and prayer before meals. Relationship with God is communication throughout our day. Each time you think of your spouse or children or parents or friends or enemies throughout the day, say a prayer and ask God to bless them. Heck, ask God to bless the kid in the vehicle next to you with the booming music or the lady with the screaming child 2 tables away at the restaurant and every one else who crosses your path.
Love is prayer. God is love (1 John 4:8). They cannot be separated.
1 comment:
Prayer is love. The Spirit has been reinforcing this in my soul for a while now. Responding to the call to pray, responding to the deep yearning of the heart to pray is what the Lord wants. It is a desire for relationship and our response is so important. It is love. Sometimes I get down on myself when my prayer time doesn't measure up to my expectations but it is the effort and time that Jesus wants. It is like a spousal relationship. Sometimes your intimate times can make you feel so united and so at one with the other yet other times you mind can't even stay focused when talking on the phone with him. It is the same with our relationship with God. I think that prayer is love because we are responding to God, desiring to love and taking the time to be with him. Focused or not spending time in prayer is showing our love. If done in love, prayer is love. Anyway, it is hard to explain even simple things, but that is what has been sitting in my heart a lot lately. To love is to pray and to pray is to love.
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