When we think of JESUS praying for nine months to His Father, when we
think of Mary's nine months' colloquy with JESUS, we begin to think that
there is something wrong about our methods of prayer, that they need
re-modelling. Let us try to understand something of what His prayer was.
We think of Him, and quite rightly, as talking over with His Father all
His plans for man's salvation, praying for each individual thing that
would be connected with it through all time. We love to think that He
prayed particularly for each one of us. But all this was not the
_essence_ of His prayer, if it were, we might well be discouraged and
feel that we could never copy such a model; our distractions and
fatigues, our ignorance and want of memory, to say nothing of our times
of dryness and distaste for prayer would make such prayers, except
perhaps now and again in times of consolation, impossible for us. Am I
to turn away sadly then from Mary this time, saying: It is too hard for
me, I cannot copy thy Son here? No, rather let me ask what was the
essence of His prayer? What was it which lay behind all? It was the
_intention_. And what was that? We have meditated upon it many times:
"_Behold I come to do Thy Will, O my God._" The essence of His prayer
was: Thy Will be done and I am here to do it. Naturally there are many
different ways of doing that Will, and many degrees in the perfection
with which it is done; and that is why we are quite safe in picturing to
ourselves JESUS in the womb of His Mother forgetting no single detail;
or perhaps a truer picture would be a union with His Father so perfect
that everything lay open before them both, and that there was no need to
talk about what was so evident. Now let me apply all this to myself and
I shall find that instead of being discouraging it is most encouraging,
instead of making my prayers harder it will make them far easier. What
is my intention in my prayers? Is it not to please God and to do His
Will? What does my Morning Offering mean, but that the prayers, work and
sufferings of the day are all offered to Him? I form then my _intention_
for the day, and as long as I do not deliberately take back that
intention, it is there, even if I forget to renew it each morning. Now
let me see how this works out in practice. I pay a Visit to our Lord,
perhaps I am too tired to think about Him, I may even sleep in His
presence; perhaps I am so busy that I find it impossible to keep away
distracting thoughts; perhaps I am more taken up with the spiritual book
I am reading than with Him--the time is up and I go, thinking, perhaps,
what is the good of paying Him a Visit like that? There is great good
even in that Visit which all the same might have been so much more
perfect. What was my intention in paying it? Certainly to please Him.
Then I _have_ pleased Him. It was a pleasure to Him to see me come in
and sit with Him, even though I was occupied with my own concerns most
of the time. We are too much taken up with asking _how_ we say our
prayers, but the important question is _why_ do we say them. To go and
sit in His presence, because He is lonely or because I am tired and I
would rather sit with Him than with anyone else is _prayer_, even if I
say nothing. What God is doing for me is of far more importance to my
soul than what I am doing for God; and all the time that I am there,
whether I am thinking of Him or not, He is impressing His image on my
soul, and this is true, if I am in the state of grace, not only of my
stated times of prayer, but of all the day long and the night too. What
God wants in our prayers is simplicity. To help us to understand what
simplicity is, let us think of a little child with its mother. The
mother gives it something to play with or something to do. Is she very
much concerned about _what_ the child is doing or _how_ it is doing it?
Not at all, that is of no consequence; nothing it does can be of any
real _service_ to the mother; but there is something that concerns her
very much, and that is whether her child loves her, is happy to be with
her, and wants to please her. We are only children and God is more
tender than the tenderest mother. It makes very little difference to Him
what we are doing while we are with Him or even how we do it (how can
our little services make any difference to Him!); but whether or no we
love Him, whether or no we care to be with Him, whether or no we want to
please Him, these things make all the difference.
_Colloquy_ with JESUS and Mary about prayer.
_Resolution._ To try to live more in the spirit of prayer.
_Spiritual Bouquet._ "Let nothing hinder thee from praying _always_"
(Ecclus. XVIII. 22).