If you are anything like me you wonder if you are really praying correctly. Somehow despite efforts at prayer I don’t experience the connection with God that I imagine should be the result of prayer. That makes me wonder if I am doing it right. Do I need more training in how to pray? Or perhaps prayer is something where you have to have an inbuilt ability like an ear for music or the ability to hit a curve ball. Then St. Paul says something shocking: “we do not know how to pray as we ought.” St.Paul, one of the greatest saints in the history of the church says he does not know how to pray! I find that strangely consoling. He goes on to add that the Holy Spirit takes our attempts at prayer (“inexpressible groaning”) and lifts them up to the throne of grace. The image that came to me was a young child trying to shoot a basketball but is too short to make it all the way to the hoop. So her father lifts her up and then she can put the ball in the basket. The Holy Spirit takes our feeble attempts at prayer, lifts them up, and makes sure that they received by God with care and attention.
