Let us communicate, life is beautiful.

Let us communicate, life is beautiful.

Life is beautiful. One of the many important things that add beauty to life is Prayer. Hence, I thought of beginning my blog with this beauty of life. Bible talks of prayer as “beseeching the Lord” (Ex 23: 11), “pouring out the soul before the Lord” (1 sam 1: 15), “crying to heaven” (2ch 32: 20), seeking unto God and making supplication (Job 8: 5), “drawing near to god” (Ps 73: 28).

However, traditionally, prayer is understood as conversation between God and Human beings. True, prayer is a conversation, a dialogue with God but it is not an occasion to display one’s eloquence of speech or linguistic ability. For me, it is a sharing, a sharing in confidence and trust. This sharing comforts and heals one’s heart and energizes to march ahead. It need not to be verbal but free, spontaneous outpouring of oneself to the Divine.

Cell phones and other devices have become essential commodities of communication in today’s society. We have Bluetooth devices, Wifi and talking computers that allow us to interact and communicate. Much more, prayer is a powerful means of communication with the Divine and the neighbor, it’s a soul-force. The so-called essential gadgets may be replaced by something else tomorrow but prayer has neither replacement nor substitute from alpha and omega.

Prayer may be taught but not learned at school. It is primarily a natural, internal deep innate longing to be one with the Divine.

Source of Prayer: One’s personal innate desire to be united with the love of God and of neighbor.

Motivation of Prayer: 1. Soul’s undying desire to be one with the Almighty.

2. Beauty and burdens of daily life.

Back-bone of Prayer: Faith (Math 7: 7, 21:22, Mk 11: 24, Jn 14: 13-14)

Methods of Prayer: The scripture mentions of many methods of prayer, however, as per me each one of us is a master of our own method and its unique and different from the other. When I was a seminarian, one of our retreat preachers mentioned to us that the time of doxology during the Eucharistic celebration is very special and if one makes a sincere wish at the time of doxology, the prayer would be heard. Since then, without fail for ten years, until May 07, 2010, I prayed to become a priest at every mass during doxology. I followed it until I reached the altar to sing the doxology.

Benefits of Prayer:

Transformation of oneself: Helps one towards the realization of human dependence on God and accept life with all its beauty and burden.

Peace of mind: Serenity and tranquility is an inevitable reward of a sincere prayer.

Self-confidence: Helps one to realize one’s abilities and boasts self-confidence to face the realities of life.

Having said all this, in reality what matters is not theological explanation of prayer but personal experience of this beautiful means of communication between Human and the Divine.

Let us communicate, life is beautiful.