As We Offer Prayers to God, Jesus Offers Himself in Prayer for Us

(See the readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter)

“Life is good,” she thought as she entered the church through the arched doorway. She had a good family full of love. She had established a wide group of friends on campus, several of whom she was close. Her life was full of promise. This was her first time entering the church even though she had been on campus for three years. She was not raised in the faith. She did not deny the existence of God, but if he did exist, he seemed quite distant.

Recalling the story later she said she did not know what made her enter the church that Sunday morning. Mass had already ended and the students had all left the building. The lights had been turned off except for the altar. The votive candles flickered in the darkness. Attracted by the light and the beauty of the sanctuary she walked up the aisle. She looked around and saw no one in the building yet had the strange sensation that she was not alone.

Reaching the sanctuary, she noticed two small baskets on the altar rail with a little sign: “Prayers of the heart.” “Interesting,” she thought, “these must be requests.” The small baskets were full of little slips of folded paper with handwritten intentions. Not knowing what to do, she opened one and started reading, then another, and another. “For world peace,” one read. “For the poor that they might find shelter and food,” read another. She continued reading: “For contentment,” “for my parents that they might reconcile,” “for John,” “for the Holy Father,” “for help with physics,” “in thanksgiving,” “for finding a friend.”

The next one jolted her. Up to this point, she had been impressed by the concerns offered in the prayers, so diverse yet very personal. As she unfolded the last petition, she read her name. She was moved in ways she could not describe. Someone was praying for her. Everyone entering this church was praying for her. A tear welled up in her eye. As she wiped it away, she knelt down there at the altar and prayed. Years later she would say, “life was good when I opened that door, but it was better after I entered.”

The prayers we offer for each other are prayers of the heart. We may not see or sense their efficacy but it is real nonetheless. The concerns we share for one another reflect the bonds of love established by the God to whom we pray. Jesus himself witnesses to this loving relationship in his prayer. In the passage for this Sunday’s liturgy from the Gospel According to John, we hear one of those prayers. Jesus prays for us, each one of us. He offers this prayer as he is preparing to enter his passion. For this reason, it is sometimes called the “priestly prayer.” His offering in this prayer is himself.

The Gospels recall Jesus praying throughout the public ministry. He prays in the synagogue. He prays in the Temple. He prays at home. He prays in deserted places. He prays with others. He prays alone. He prays before significant events. He prays in the common experiences. He prays in moments of crisis. He prays in moments of calm. He prays when he is energized. He prays when he is tired. Prayer is woven into his life. His life is a life of prayer.

So what is prayer? Many times we answer this question by listing the different types of prayer: intercessory, meditation, thanksgiving, praise and so on. Other times we might describe different methods or occasions of prayer: Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, rosary, lectio divina, chaplets, stations of the cross, novenas and so forth. The most basic and fundamental description of prayer, however, involves a relationship between God and ourselves. The Catechism describes this relationship as “vital and personal.”

The saints are good resources for describing prayer as their relationship with God was so vividly central in their lives. St. John Vianney once described it as “the inner bath of love in which the soul plunges itself.” St. Augustine writes: “Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.” St. Therese of Lisieux writes: “Prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” St. Teresa of Calcutta writes: “Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of himself.” Perhaps the most direct and basic expression comes from St. Teresa of Avila who writes: “Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”

Our friendship with God is both personal and communal. God loves each one of us as individuals and at the same time all of us as his family. The readings from Acts of the Apostles we have been hearing since Easter remind us of the importance of prayer in the communion of faith. Today’s reading states it quite simply. After naming the apostles, Luke writes: “All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

The communal dimension of prayer is also seen, quite vividly, in Jesus’ instruction on prayer, the Our Father. This short poem I found online makes the point:

You cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer and even once say “I.”
You cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer and even once say “My.”
Nor can you pray the Lord’s Prayer and not pray for one another.
And when you ask for daily bread, you must include your brother.
For others are included … in each and every plea,
From the beginning to the end of it, it doesn’t once say “Me.”

Prayer is both personal and communal because our relationship with God is both personal and communal. We are united in love by God who is Love. In the story mentioned above, prayer was the door that opened the young woman to friendship with God. At first, it was not her prayer but the prayer of an unknown friend, someone who was praying for her. In the end, she entered the prayer and her life was enriched through it, well beyond what she had never imagined.

***

Msgr. Joseph Prior is pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish in Penndel and a former professor of Sacred Scripture and rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Read more reflections by Msgr. Prior here.

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