Sustaining, Connecting, Present Prayer

We are asked to pray. In Luke 18:1-8 “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

We tend to think of prayer as “asking.” We forget, that prayer, really, is about “connecting.”

I remember one particularly sweet moment in my ordained life, after 15 years or so of regular prayer at specific times, after 3 years of seminary with prayer at regular specific times throughout the day, after my ordination as deacon and then as priest … I took a break.

You know, you get to have a break once in a while.

And one morning, I was sitting at my computer, it was a sunny day and I was looking out the window and there was suddenly a unitive moment.

Now, these are the moments when you “know” God is with you. Usually, they happen when you ask for them. Sometimes they happen when you are in a time of trial and God just wants to let you know you are not alone. But this was different, and as I pondered what God wanted I realized it was prayer time and I had not prayed in over a week. God missed me!

I laughed out loud. And then I said “thank you.” And then I learned at last to pray, not in “gimme-gimme” style, but rather in “I’m here” style.

This is what God wants—God wants us to be present not only with God but also with each other. In other words, love, always.

LGBTQ people are particularly good at this; it is our call after all, it is why God created us so we might be witnesses to love. And the best way we can be witnesses to love, which is God, is to live fully, at all times, into God, which is love.

In Jeremiah 31:33 God says “I will put my law [of love] within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” In Psalm 119:97 the psalmist responds “Oh, how I love your law!, all the day long it is in my mind.” In 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Paul preaches to “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed” and “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.”

In other words, pray always and do not lose heart.

On Thursday October 14 Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez (Bishop of Pennsylvania, where I am canonically resident) sent a message to the diocese about beauty asking “What did you see today that was beautiful? Or, what did you hear that was beautiful? Beauty has the power to change our hearts and the world. In that beauty, we find joy ….” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYq1vGxiS0A ). Seeking beauty, recognizing beauty, is itself a form of prayer. Sharing beauty—such as the beauty I see in my husband’s heart—is a form of active prayer, a sustaining, connecting, present prayer.

Proper 24 Year C 2022 RCL (Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119: 97-104 Quomodo dilexi!; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8)

©2022 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.