Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
May 17, 2014
Spiritual Ponderings
Going Deeper in prayer

As we look at how we can grow deeper in our relationship with the Lord, I would like to share with you some quotes from a small book called A Guide to Christian Meditation. This book was written by Fr. John Bartunek who is one of the writers behind www.spiritualdirection.com . Quotes from his book will be in bold and my commentary will be in the normal font.

Prayer as its most basic level is conversation with God. This seems obvious, but it harbors an awesome reality. To converse with someone implies that that someone wants to pay attention to you, otherwise you have a monologue, not a conversation. The mere existence of prayer implies that God is paying attention, that he is interested in spending time with you. Christian Prayer is an invitation from God to the one who prays—it starts with God, not with you.

I have a hard time meeting new people because there is a part of me that fears that they will reject me. It is so much easier for me when the other person makes the first move. It shows me that they at least see something in me already that make them want to get to know me better. Realizing that God desires to converse with us, can be a big help in starting a long lasting prayer life. Another way to look at this truth is to compare God to my mother who always wants to hear from her son. I can never inconvenience my mother or God because both desire to hear from me often.

Prayer, then, is more than just a dry religious duty, more than self-centered and self-sufficient self-help techniques; Christian prayer is a friendship with God in Christ

Carl Marx, the philosopher who developed communism, called “religion the opium of the Masses.” If pray is truly developing a relationship with God than this is impossible because friendship entails doing stuff with the friend. The more I pray, the more I want to spend time with God, the more I do things with my Friend, and therefore the more service I perform. True religion is not supposed to make us lazy.

Only Christianity is so bold as to claim that in Christ we can become God’s friends, because only Christianity offers a God who becomes man, a Good Shepherd who becomes a lamb in order to win the hearts of his sheep: I shall not call you servants anymore, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father (Jn. 15:15).

Do we truly appreciate that the coolest, most beautiful, most magnificent being in the Universe (and beyond) desires to be our friend?

Christian meditation differs essentially from transcendental meditation and other New Age centering techniques. Christian meditation is Christ-centered, a loving dialogue between Christ and the soul that deepens your friendship with Christ. It starts with the Holy Spirit urging you to pursue a greater knowledge and love of Christ and ends with your renewed commitment to follow and imitate Christ in the unique circumstances of our daily life. Transcendental meditation, on the other hand, is self-centered. Instead of a dialogue with God, an opening of the soul to God, it consists primarily in calming the many passions of the soul, creating a self-induced interior tranquility and focus that overflows in certain types of feelings. The goal of transcendental meditation is to withdraw from the complexities of life in order to experience emotional tranquility the goal of Christian meditation is to know, love, and follow Jesus Christ more completely to discover and embrace God’s will for you more and more each day.

Jesus has no desire to take us out of this world, otherwise He would. Instead He desires to have us as His co-workers making the world a better place.

Keep in mind that growth in the spiritual life and in prayer takes time and consistent effort. Sometimes you may feel that you are making great progress, then suddenly you seem to have a relapse. Other times you may feel that you are making no progress at all, and then unexpectedly spring forward.

All friendships have their ups and downs. True friendships grow stronger with each reconciliation.