Being a Man of Prayer

So I have to give a little talk this weekend about being a man of prayer. Here is what I got, minus the PowerPoint presentation that goes along with it.

     Being a man of prayer is a duty we hold as Catholic gentleman, but it can be seen as a daunting task. To be a man of prayer there is one very essential understanding that needs to be accepted; prayer needs to be the center of our lives. To live a life without prayer is to live a life without a relationship with God. Jesus tells us in Luke's gospel to "pray always without becoming weary" (Luke 18:1). Think of Jesus himself and how often he prayed. We can read in many places in the gospels were Jesus prayed. Can you think of any right now? Whether alone on a mountain side or in the garden, with a group of his apostles, before a meal, during his Passion, and even for an entire night, prayer was a central part of Jesus' life. To be a man of prayer you must strive to emulate Jesus.
     Now there are some things we have to further understand about prayer if we are to make it central to our lives. One thing I was told growing up was that anytime I felt the need to pray, that was the Holy Spirit acting in my life. I have experienced many times when I can't explain why but I felt the need to pray or remembered that I needed to pray at a certain moment. Those were times when the spirit was active in my life. This is not a foreign concept because Paul tells us that the spirit will help us in our prayers (Romans 8:26-27). We as humans are incapable of praying perfectly so the spirit is there to help us, and I believe push us to pray and pray better.
     Yet, even though we always receive help in our prayers, making prayer central in our lives requires perseverance and faith. For some this can be very challenging. There is not a person out there that does not at times struggle in their prayer life and we cannot beat ourselves up when we do struggle. Two points that I believe are important here are one; we should not compare our own prayer lives to others, and two; we are incapable of praying perfectly. Regarding the first point, each person's prayer life is their own, it's their own relationship to God. If we begin comparing our own prayer lives to other people we can harm ourselves in a couple different ways.  We may feel frustrated because we think other people have better prayer lives or we may feel pride in thinking our prayer life is better then others and therefore think of ourselves as being better and essentially failing to be humble. I have to admit that I have experienced both in my own life. Being jealous of the prayer life of friends and also feeling way to good about myself for thinking I had a better prayer life. Now regarding the second point, we must understand that we really don't know what we are doing when we pray, especially as youngsters but even into adulthood. Clearly, this is why we need the spirit's help. But like most things in life, prayer takes practice. We cannot beat ourselves up when prayer does not come easily. We get distracted, we start and stop or can't find the right words. It happens to all of us, but with practice and the help of the Holy Spirit our prayer lives can and will improve.
     Men of prayer I believe fully live out and express one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that is received at confirmation, that gift being the fear of the Lord. This gift is not about being afraid of God or his punishment. Fear of the Lord is more about a fear of being separated from the Lord. Think of a child who screams and cries when their parents drop them off at school for the first time or the kid who looses their mom or dad in a crowd and immediately they become scared and fearful. Just like that child, men of prayer fear being away from God. The thought of not having God in their life is unimaginable and unthinkable. A man of prayer has a relationship with God that cannot be broken easily because they pray often and maintain that relationship. To be a man of prayer you must desire a relationship with God, cultivate it and maintain it. They live out St. Paul's words to the Ephesians when he says to "pray at every opportunity in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18).