Second in a series

WHEN I WAS in Catholic grammar school, I learned the following definition of prayer: “Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God.” That definition served me well for many years; it no longer does. What now bothers me about the definition is that it seems to suggest prayer starts with us, that we initiate the prayer process. The definition gives me the impression that we pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and turn ourselves toward God. I don’t believe that. It is almost as though we are calling God’s attention to our presence or needs. God loves us more than we love ourselves.

Prayer starts with God. It is God who initiates the process of prayer. God invites us into relationship, invites us to address God and we respond. The definition of prayer that I now like very much is: “Prayer is hearing and responding to the Word of God.” I think this definition places the emphasis on God’s initiative and fits all types of prayer.

Emphasis on God

This hearing of God can happen anywhere and at any time. It can happen at a Eucharist, in the morning or evening as we prepare to offer daily prayers, when visiting someone in a hospital or in a nursing home. It can happen when we are reading a newspaper or a book or watching television. When I was a student in the seminary, friends and I had what now seems like endless discussions about whether we would pray enough after we were ordained. We had images of priests being exceptionally busy and wondered whether apostolic activity detracted from priests’ prayer lives.

I now think that apostolic activity is a type of prayer. It is not what we might call formal prayer, such as saying an Our Father or a Hail Mary, but it is hearing and responding to the Word of God. If apostolic activities, such as visiting a hospital or nursing home, counseling someone, preaching a homily or a hundred other actions that might occupy a priest’s time, do not start with God’s initiative, they are worthless. If writing this column is not a prayer, then I am wasting my time. God’s Word is always being spoken, not only at what we might call “sacred times” such as at a Sunday Eucharist, but always, at every moment. God’s initiative is always present.

I have used priests’ lives as an example because I think it might make more clear what I am suggesting. What I have written about priests’ hearing and responding to the Word of God applies with some obvious differences to everyone’s life.

Part of Every Life

Everyone’s life is surrounded by God’s love. I believe that anyone who hears and responds to God’s Word is praying. My opinion is that an individual does not have to consciously think, “I am now responding to God’s Word,” or consciously refer to God’s initiative when performing a good action. An individual might be responding to God without consciously adverting to God’s inspiration. The Spirit breathes where He will! If my view is correct, then this makes it possible to suspect that even people who claim not to believe in God might be hearing and responding to the Word of God. I think of Pope Francis insisting that God is part of everyone’s life.

When my friends and I were having those discussions in the seminary, what we should have been asking was whether people can be too busy to engage in formal prayer, such as morning and evening prayers, or what should be the central prayer in a Catholic’s life, the Eucharist. My guess is that if formal prayer is completely absent from a Catholic’s life, it will be more difficult to hear and respond to the Word of God in other situations.

Formal prayer can help keep our “spiritual antennae” sensitive and ready to hear God. There is much in the contemporary world to distract us from what is most important. Every day I see evidence that contemporary consciences are tempted to relativism, and contemporary consciousnesses is tempted to embrace a thoroughly secular view of reality. Formal prayer can be a powerful antidote to those temptations. It can be a powerful way of welcoming God into our lives.

Pope Francis is calling for a revolution of love. He sees this revolution as influencing every level of society, from the church to the most secular realities in our society. Some people may think of the pope’s vision as naive. Occasionally we might think of such a revolution as unrealistic. That would be a mistake. It isn’t unrealistic. The revolution is already happening. When we pray, we become part it.

Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica, and author of “Pope Francis’ Profound Personalism and Poverty” (Resurrection Press).