“Lord, teach us to pray.” That request made to Jesus has been made time and again in every land, in every culture, in every religion. We want to learn how to pray. We seek a teacher who will help us pray. We want to know what prayer is. The catechism definition, prayer as a lifting of our mind and heart to God, is good as far as it goes but how to do that? I’m not sure how to lift my mind and heart to God. We look at the great saints, the champions of prayer, for some guidance. Maybe they can teach us to pray? When St. Teresa of Avila whose struggles at learning to pray are captured in several of her books was asked how she prayed she answered: I look at Jesus looking at me. What Teresa conveyed about prayer was that it was not a skill, not an accomplishment, that we achieve through training and willpower. Rather, prayer is a gift, something which God bestows upon us. Hence, the mutual gaze of love between Jesus and the seeker opens one up to receive the gift of prayer. That helps explain the parable of the friend at midnight. Sometimes you just have to keep banging on the door of heaven to be given the gift of prayer. Genuine prayer only comes with perseverance, with hanging in there with God. Teresa herself said it took eighteen years of trying before she felt that God enabled her to lift her mind and heart to the throne of grace. When we say, Lord, teach us to prayer, we must understand that there is no quick fix, that we’ve got to be in it for the long haul. We must work through the minor leagues of prayer – single A, double A, triple A — before we hit the big leagues. Being a person of prayer takes time.
When Jesus began to teach about prayer he gave us a specific prayer to say: we call it the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. It remains the pre-eminent prayer in the Christian tradition. As you doubtless noticed the prayer in St. Luke’s gospel is somewhat shorter than then one in St. Matthew which is the one we are accustomed to saying. But you might not have noticed that what both versions of the prayer have in common is they tell God what to do. For all you grammarians out there the verbs in the prayer are imperatives. Make your name hallowed, Make your kingdom come. Give us our daily bread. Forgive us our sins. Do not subject us to the test. Is Jesus in the Lord’s prayer telling us to boss God around? Actually, Jesus taught us to pray in this way because it demonstrates that the only genuine prayer is the prayer that is directed to God as God is, not as we might like God to be. One of the temptations for Christians is to make God a little more cuddly, kind of a combination of Heidi’s grandfather and St. Francis of Assisi. The Lord’s prayer reminds us of God’s true nature. God is the holy one whose kingdom is coming. God is the giver and forgiver. God is the Lord of History. What we are saying in the Our Father is: God, you be you. But this is a prayer because of the next line is not the expected one: “you be you and I’ll be me.” Rather, we are praying that we will become more as God is. You be you and I’ll strive to become like you. Yes, we worship the God who created the stars and galaxies, who bends history toward justice. But this God also gave us the free will which means human beings constantly mess stuff up with war and hatred and greed and selfishness. Couldn’t God have done a better job? We say the Lord’s prayer to acknowledge that God’s love, God’s will, God’s plan is better than anything we can imagine.
Happily, as Jesus continues his instruction on prayer he gives us a leg up to help us come to know God. Jesus tells us that God is at least as good as we are. “If you who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” What we know of love in human life is a foretaste, an inkling of the love that God has for us. But God’s love is not squishy. In prayer we learn what God’s love is like. Yes, the father will not hand his son a snake instead of a fish but he will make also sure that his son eats his vegetables because he knows they are good for him despite the son not liking them as much as cheez-puffs. And God’s love is like the surgeon who cuts into the living flesh despite the pain because he knows only in that way will genuine healing happen. God’s love is like the teacher who insists on you doing your own homework and not relying on AI because she knows that only in that way will your mind reach its full potential. God is at least as good as we are and so pushes us, makes demands upon us, challenges us, dares us to become who we were made to be, children of God made in God’s image and likeness.
“Lord, teach us to pray.” I would like to suggest one technique that incorporates the lessons about prayer in the gospel to help us to learn how to pray. Breathe. Jesus said God would send the Holy Spirit to those who asked for it. The Holy Spirit is God’s breath. As you sit or kneel to pray breathe with the awareness that every breath you take, you are taking in the Spirit of God. Scientists tell us that the molecules in the atmosphere are so long lasting and so well mixed that with every breath we are taking in an oxygen atom that Jesus inhaled. Breathe and be filled with Jesus as the opening to prayer.
