›› More Communion Than Communication

Imagine a friend who never wishes to talk with you and who doesn’t pay attention when you talk to him! Would you put up with him for very long? However, this kind of behavior, which we loathe so much in others, is all too often a part of our relationship with God.

When my children were young and learning to pray, more than once they knelt at their bed and prayed: “Thank you for this food we eat.”

Or we would be seated ’round the table for breakfast and they would pray: “Keep us safe throughout this night.”

While we smile at such childish behavior, it does point out our misunderstanding of prayer. The child is reciting a formula. He is acting out a conditioned response, putting the prayer cassette on “play.” He does not have a clear idea of entering into contact with anyone.

The same thing happens to us. We forget that prayer is more than something we recite. We do not understand that it is something we live, that it is more communion than communication.

If we were aware of this fact, prayer would case to be routine, pressured, forced. If we would only stop to realize that in this privileged moment of prayer the Creator of the Universe is willing to listen to us, to talk with us, to grant us His undivided attention for as long as we desire, our spiritual lives would be transformed.

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Source: Robert Badenas. Meet Jesus. Autumn House, Lincolnshire, England, 1995. 137 pp.