From the book: WITH OPEN HANDS by Fr. Henri Nouwen
(We reach back 40 years -- this book was first printed in 1972 -- for this timeless quote from popular author, Fr. Henri Nouwen.)
"To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, therefore, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God's promises, and find hope for yourself, your fellowman and the whole community in which you live. In prayer, you encounter God in the soft breeze, in the distress and joy of your neighbor and in the loneliness of your own heart.
"Prayer leads you to see new paths and to hear new melodies in the air. Prayer is the breath of your life which gives you freedom to go and stay where you wish and to find the many signs which point out the way to a new land. Praying is not simply some necessary compartment in the daily schedule of a Christian or a source of support in time of need, nor is it restricted to Sunday morning or as a frame to surround mealtimes. Praying is living. A Benedictine monk living in India writes:
"There are no part-time contemplatives, just as there are no part-time Christians, nor part-time men. From the day that we begin to believe in Christ and acknowledge him as Lord, there is no moment -- awake, asleep, walking, sitting, working, learning, eating, playing that is not marked by God's hold on us, which is not lived in the name of Jesus in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
"Therefore, a life in prayer is a life with open hands where you are not ashamed of your weakness but realize that it is more perfect for a man to be led by the other than to seek to hold everything in his own hands.
"Only within this kind of life does a spoken prayer make sense. A prayer in church, at table or in school is only a witness to what we want to make of our entire lives. Such a prayer only recalls to mind that praying is living and it invites you to make this an ever-greater reality. Thus there are as many ways to pray as there are moments in life. Sometimes you seek out a quiet spot and you want to be alone, sometimes you look for a friend and you want to be together. Sometimes you'd like a book or some music. Sometimes you want to sing out with hundreds, sometimes only to whisper with a few. Sometimes you want to say it with words, sometimes with a deep silence.
"In all these moments, you gradually make your life more a prayer and you open your hands to be led by God even to where you would rather not go." (pages 154,157, 158)
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