PRAYING THE TRUTH

(chapel here at Ava)

 

 

DEEPENING YOUR FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD THROUGH HONEST PRAYER

 

I believe that God wants a personal relationship, an adult friendship, with each of us and that prayer is the best way of engaging in that friendship.  By prayer I mean what occurs when I am conscious in some way of God's presence.  So prayer can be as simple as watching a child trying to speak words, looking at sunlight glancing off snow-covered trees, playing with your dog, feeling the wind on your face, hearing birds sing, smelling bacon sizzling in a frying pan, looking at someone you love;  all can be prayer if you're aware of God's presence as you take in these experiences.

 

For Lent of 2010 I decided to ask God every day:  "What do you want for our friendship?"   Almost as soon as I began to focus on this question, I felt God's love for me, and then experienced some tangible examples for that love both in prayer and daily life.   I took these experiences as God's response.   Then my prayer took its usual route of distractions about worries or things to do;  when I noticed this and turned back to God,  I said something like this,  "There I go again."   God seemed to reply,  "Why don't you talk to me about these distractions."    When I did, I noticed how the concerns evaporated;  moreover,  I often knew how to approach, in a more positive and less absorbed way, what I was going to do or the people I was concerned about.  When I began to talk to God about my distractions, they were no longer distractions;  they became openings to dialogue and greater transparency with God.

 

So, in this book, I intend to engage in a conversation with you about what it might mean for your prayer life to engage in a friendship with God, a friendship God wants very much.   To grow in that friendship, you and God will have to tell the truth to each other.  In the process, I believe, you will find yourself slowly transformed.

 

(The quote above in an excerpt from a new book by Fr. William A. Barry, S.J., entitled:  PRAYING THE TRUTH.   It is published by Loyola Press.)