“…We have to teach what we are at least struggling to put into practice.” (Saint Josemaria, “The Forge”, at 694).
The other day – on a quiet Sunday afternoon – my children and I decided to do some cooking.
I cook every day of the week – for me it is a normal part of my life and I do not begrudge it – but I had not cooked for the mere pleasure of cooking for some time and so it was that on that Sunday afternoon we decided to cook.
And when I say cook for the mere pleasure of it I do not mean that sort of cooking that enables me to get a quick weekday meal sorted. Rather, I am referring to trying out a new recipe or making a recipe that takes several hours to prepare. I am referring to baking bread or complicated deserts that require many stages to come to completion. I am referring to the luxury of cooking, where nobody is waiting hungrily for the food to be prepared, but instead, people are happy to wait – sometimes even until the following day – and then they can relax and enjoy the good food after some time of anticipation of the taste…
And I have been thinking about this today because it seems clear to me that this preparation of this food is much the same as my prayer life.
You see, just as I usually cook to prepare quick weekday meals for my family, without taking much time for enjoyment in the process or the work, so too do I usually pray in this manner – quickly and distractedly, rushing through the task to make sure that I have the time and space for other things. Usually this happens when I require something urgently. Often it happens when my need to pressing and I need to throw a quick prayer over my shoulder as I push on through the turmoil of life.
But this is not enough to remind me of the beauty of prayer – just as a quick weekday meal is not enough to remind me of the pleasure that can be found in preparing a complex meal.
And I have been thinking about that today. Because it seems that I rush through life so quickly that I barely have the time to stop really pray. And as I reflect on this it occurs to me that I am often so busy doing that I do not bear witness to my own faith through my example. After all, if God is the Creator of all the universe and if He truly is my Beloved, what better thing could I devote my time to than praying to Him?
Saint Josemaria wrote in “The Forge” at 694, “Jesus began to do and then to teach. You and I have to bear witness with our example, because we cannot live a double life. We cannot preach what we do not practice. In other words, we have to teach what we are at least struggling to put into practice.”
And today, as I prepare the food, I think that I need to pray for the Grace to bear witness through my example… That is the Grace I need to pray for now.
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.