Power up your Prayer

There is both a comfort and a risk in the predictability of many of our Catholic practices. There is comfort in knowing what to expect, what is expected of you, and knowing it will be the same no matter where in the world you are or whom you are with. There is an ease in having someone else come up with the words for you, allowing you to meditate on them and pray them with your heart instead of your mind, or of having a prayer to offer when you can’t even form words for what your soul is crying out for. There is strength in many voices raised in unison, and a tangible sense of community and solidarity. The risk, however, is that it can become rote and meaningless, or taken for granted, giving weight to the Protestant argument against ‘vain and repetitive prayer’. This dichotomy of benefits and pitfalls can apply to the mass, the rosary, holy hour, daily devotions, mealtime prayers, and even family traditions, so we have work at keeping it pertenent. This work becomes even more of a challenge if you are stressed, sleep deprived, distracted by young children, or have mental challenges such as ADHD or depression, all of which make it more difficult to focus and concentrate. So, how do we fight this temptation of complacency and glean the abundant graces and blessings that come with full participation in the various forms of worship that are available to us in the Catholic faith? How do we show our children the vibrancy of a deep Catholic faith in a seemingly rote system?

There is a great article on Catholic answers that addresses the issue of ‘vain repetition’ in prayer, so I will not re-hash that subject. You can read their article here https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/its-not-vain-to-repeat-your-prayers . What I do want to focus on are ways to prevent repetitive prayer and make the prayers more meaningful as you are praying them.

The first thing is to SLOW DOWN. We had a foreign exchange student once who spoke very good English, but after about a week at our house, he asked us what we were saying when we held hands before eating dinner. Apparently ‘Blessusohlord and theesethygifts whichweareabouttoreceive fromthybounty throughcrhistourlordamen’ weren’t vocabulary words taught in his English class. We slowed the mealtime prayer down so he could understand us, and I was amazed at the difference it made to the meaning of the prayer. No longer was it a countdown to ‘let's eat!’, it became a supplication for blessings and acknowledgment of His providence for us, spoken in the holy name of Christ, our Lord. The Catholic meal-blessing is a very beautiful prayer when you step back and look at it! The impact of that decision many years ago still affects the sincerity with which I pray before meals to this day.

Similarly, when our family started to pray the rosary nightly (or, semi-nightly, if we’re going to be honest), we tried praying along with rosaries online. Of course, when it was the kids’ turn to lead, they looked for videos that were the shortest, so they could ‘get it over with’ quicker. There are some videos out there that cram an entire rosary into just 14 minutes, and go so fast I literally can not form the words fast enough to keep up with them! There are many that cut the end of one prayer off with someone starting the next prayer over the top of it. I had to work so hard at keeping up with the words that I could not contemplate the mysteries. This is not a meaningful, reflective prayer that the rosary was intended as! Slow it down, allow 18-20 minutes, and give your brain time to reflect on the mystery and the words you are praying.

The second way to make prayer more meaningful is to keep in mind what prayer is: a conversation with God. There is a great video out there titled ‘What If we talked to people the way we talk to God?”, and it is, in my opinion, hysterical. It falls in the category of satire, not mockery, and makes a very valid point through the use of humor. The skit is directed at the rambling style of spontaneous prayer peppered with ‘Father-God’s, and “I just/you just/we just….’ strung together with an indefinite chain of ‘and’s, repeated words and long pauses. If we are trying to have a personal relationship with God, we shouldn’t feel pressured to use flowery words, long, dramatic performance prayers, or worry in any way about sounding eloquent if that isn’t your natural style. God knows our hearts inside and out, so we just need to speak to Him sincerely. You wouldn’t whoosh into your boss’s office and rush through a conversation in which you spoke so fast you could barely form the words, would you? You wouldn’t offer a speech at a memorial, wedding or retirement party by flatly reciting words from a paper and then sitting down, or unemotionally recite a poem to your spouse and then walk away. So why talk to God like that? Be sincere in what you are saying, whether it is the prayers of a rosary or chaplet, bedtime prayers or mass prayers.

A third way to make your prayers more meaningful is to understand what you’re saying. It sounds silly, but this was brought to my attention when my son was in religious education class learning the Memoirie, and said the teacher would give candy to the person who came to the next class and could tell them what the word ‘clement’ means. How many times had I said that prayer and not even know what I was saying? When we pray the Hail Mary, are we mindful that we are quoting the words of an archangel, and when we say ‘blessed are you among women’ we are fulfilling Mary’s prophesy of the magnificat when she says ‘all generations will call me blessed’. When we pray the Gloria during mass, we are again quoting the words of the angels to the shepherds in Bethlehem, imitating them and joining with them in a timeless praise of the almighty God of the Universe! The Glory Be is a prayer called a ‘doxology’, a longstanding tradition in the Jewish faith that humbles ourselves by acknowledging the greatness and glory of God. The Holy Holy Holy prayer joins us to the voices of the seraphim (here’s a nice Catholic Answers article about its origins https://www.catholic.com/qa/where-does-the-holy-holy-holy-prayer-come-from ) So many prayers have either a biblical or historical origin that is worth looking into, and will deepen the meaning of the prayer when you learn about them.

The Catholic Church offers us a unique gift in these universal prayers that we can raise in one, unified voice. I have heard non-Catholics comment that they are impressed and moved when they witness a large group of Catholics all saying the same prayer in unison. These prayers are powerful, and unite God’s children in one voice across the globe and through centuries, and even across the veil between heaven and earth, joining the choir of voices in heaven. When I think of prayer in these terms, I am humbled by my participation in something so timeless and immense that is written in the visions of Revelation *

7:9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

And 5:13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!”

* For more Catholic interpretation of the prayers mentioned in Revelation, see https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/defending-the-prayers-of-the-saint