“Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray…” (Luke 11,1) Teach us to pray. Until we learn to pray we are just bystanders in life, passive observers waiting on the sidelines. Others are engaged but we have not yet discovered how to enter into the contest/mystery of life. We are waiting in the station having not yet begun our journey. We are afraid to leave the safety of our own aloneness and isolation. We know that there is “more” but it is unseen, unheard of and as yet unknown. It is beyond the boundaries of our known, familiar and comfortable world. We are sitting alone in our small boat, content to remain tied to the dock in our safe harbor.

Lord, teach us to pray. The disciple who learns to pray is ready. When we pray we are ready to put out into the deep, to begin a new journey of discovery, to see what lies beyond the boundaries of our limited vision. We are ready to open our experience of life to the “more” that life promises. When we pray we are addressing our hunger and our thirst for God, the living God. We want to encounter God, the Father, as Jesus knows him. We are ready to claim our share in his divine life. We are ready for a new vision of the world as it is meant to be, as God created it and as he sees it made new in his love. When we pray we are seeking a more personal relationship with the Father and we long to be in his presence. For too long, God has escaped us and has remained hidden from us, seeming to be absent from this world. When we pray we must wait for the Lord, wait for him to reveal himself to us in freedom, putting aside the idols we have created in our own image and with our own hands, fashioned according to our small, puny understanding. “Prayer does not create his presence, it makes us aware of it.” (Georges LeFebvre, OSB) When we pray we must be ready to enter into communion with the Father and to want what he wants, to will what he wills. “Prayer is living our whole life as a communion with the Lord.” (LeFebvre)

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray: “When you pray, say: Father.” The beginning of our encounter with God in prayer is knowing that God is our Father and that he loves us and is waiting for us to come to him in our need. Our prayer awakens the Spirit that dwells within us in our deepest self, in our true identity as children of God and which cries out for us, “Abba”, “Father!” (Rom 8,15). Matthew adds, “who art in heaven”, so that we know where the house of the Father is located and that the gifts we ask of him are truly divine gifts. “Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” Our prayer reaches out to the Father in humility and reverent respect. His is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Matthew adds, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We seek to be transformed by our prayer, to want what the Father wants and to bring heaven to earth. “Give us each day our daily bread.” We trust in the Father’s providential care for us. “And forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” A praying heart must be a free heart, not enslaved to sin or burdened with resentments. “And do not subject us to the final test.” We ask the Father and his Spirit to be our advocate, our protector and our guide to keep us safe from temptation, sin and all evil.

St. John Chrysostom taught, “When you discover the door of your heart you discover the gate of heaven.” Jesus teaches his disciples to ask and receive, to seek and to find, and to knock and the door will be opened. When we pray we discover the door to our heart and the gate of heaven. Jesus is the door and the gate and when we open that door in prayer Jesus promises us, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3,20) Prayer opens the way for an encounter with the Lord, for him to be present to us and enter into our hearts and finally to share in a joyous communion of life and love. “Lord, teach us to pray…”