“‘Lord, I don't know how to pray. I can't think of anything to tell you.’” (Saint Josemaria).
I have heard that if I want to live a different life – and make significant changes in my life – then I need to change the little things.
Ironically, trying to change the big things tends not to make much difference, but changing the small things can have a huge impact on who we are and how we live.
Let me give an example. Say, I would like my family to connect with each other better and communicate more respectfully with each other. One thing I could do would be to ensure that we eat one meal together each day. This might seem like a very small thing, but this very small thing could be the start of better communications between the members of the family and those better communications around the dinner table. If instead I wished to have a family who communicated better and more respectfully with each other and I approached this by telling them to do such a thing as a sort of command, then I would be unlikely to engender any change at all in them and instead, we would have a problem that would seem insurmountable to them…
And my spiritual life is much the same. I wish to be a great Saint. This is not because I believe that I am capable of being saintly – I am sadly lacking in this area. But I still wish to be a great Saint because my Heavenly Father created me so that I could be a Great Saint and achieve Heaven. The whole reason that my soul was created was so that I could know, love and serve God on earth and be with Him forever in Paradise. And the only way that could ever possibly happen is if I become a great Saint.
Now, this of course begs the question… What will it take for me to be a GREAT Saint? After all, that is a massive thing. Of course, it will only come about if I am pious and holy and live a life devoted to my Beloved. But how to do that?
Well, one of the easiest ways to start is to participate in daily prayer. And those periods of prayer should be unchanging. My whole day should revolve around those times. Because if I do not make those set times part of my daily activities, then I will soon neglect them altogether.
And that neglect of prayer is a terrible thing!
Instead I must devote time to speaking to my Beloved, or I shall forget the love I ought to bear Him…
In “Friends of God” at 145, Saint Josemaria wrote that when a person thinks, “‘Lord, I don't know how to pray. I can't think of anything to tell you.’ You can be sure that at that very moment you have already begun to pray.”
And so today, during my daily times of prayer, when I do not know what to say, I shall say, “‘Lord, I don't know how to pray. I can't think of anything to tell you.’” (Saint Josemaria).
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.