Has
Scheduled Prayer Improved Our World?
After
years of scheduled prayer I began to ask: Has scheduled prayer
improved our world? And I asked another question similar to this: Has
scheduled prayer improved the lives of those who practice it? My
answer to both questions is in the negative. It is a big NO. I notice
that scheduled prayer has not improved the lives of those who do have
scheduled prayer life, like the seminarians, the priests, the monks,
the religious
Sisters
and others. They are just as unloving and as un-compassionate as
those who do not practice prayer at all. At least that is what I
observe. Two world wars and a host of national and regional wars have
been fought while men and women of all religions were practicing
scheduled prayer. So I concluded that scheduled prayer has not
changed our world.
Basic
Flaw in Scheduled Prayer
The basic flaw in scheduled prayer is that we make God
listen to us on our own terms. Imagine telling a person, “I cannot
talk to you right now. I have five times to talk to you during the
day and this time is not one of those five times. Talk to me during
one of those five times. Here they are: from 5:00 to 5:30 in the
morning, etc.”. This sounds very rude but this is what happens when
we schedule our prayer time with God.
The argument for scheduled prayer is that by scheduling
it we give it the necessary priority and we perform it above all our
other activities. Most of us do not realize that by doing so we put
prayer on the level of our other activities, only it is a top
priority activity. We forget a very simple truth: Prayer is not so
much our activity as it is God's activity on us. It is God's time of
taking us by his hand and telling us about himself and telling us
about ourselves and thus transforming us.
True
Spirituality and Practice of Prayer
Real prayer is not so much we talking to God as we
listening to God. It is not taking up a prayer book and begin reading
it. Nor is it making some gestures and then addressing God, even
praising and thanking him.
Genuine prayer is getting to a place and time when we
can simply listen to God. He speaks to us all the time. It is for us
to pause and listen to him. Only this kind of prayer is life
changing. All others are just babbling of words and exercises of our
imagination and reasoning.
If we practice this kind of prayer the time will come
when we will keep on listening to God amidst all our activities and
the Spirit will describe us as walking with God as Enoch walked with
God.
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