Ok! So its not too difficult to pray is it???

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The central theme of today’s readings is that of prayer. For me prayer is one of the most important things that I do during the day. It is as important as brushing my teeth and having that first cup of tea to kick start my day.
In the psalm we hear that it is a hymn of praise and of prayer. The psalmist soul is thirsting for the Lord. Just like the morning gasp for a cup of tea or coffee so the psalmist describes his soul thirsting for the Lord. We know that we cannot survive without water and so we cannot survive without the lord. He comes to the Lord realising the need for God and to be in relationship with him.  We come to the Lord gasping for him knowing that “his love is better than life.” But the prayer comes not just through the lips but also through gesture, the hands are raised up to the Lord.
In the Gospel we see that Jesus is “praying alone in the presence of his disciples.” Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray. Through this prayer he puts the question to them about who do people say I am? This maybe at first sight a very easy question to answer and we may all have a different response. This, I feel, is a good thing. The question stays the same but, maybe the answer is different as we get older and have a deeper experience of the person of Jesus. In fact one may argue that if it has not changed and developed then maybe something has gone wrong or we have not developed our relationship with him.

The one way they we develop any relationship is through communication. And so we need to have an effective communication with the person of Jesus. This communication as we have explored is prayer. This is the only way that we can really answer the question that Jesus asks us in the Gospel.

If you are anything like me, you may find prayer quite difficult. It should be like a habit like brushing our teeth.  But, if you are like me, you sit down to do it and there is so many distractions that it does not feel that there is much prayer happening. I remember that I have had been quite worried about this for some time. Over this time I realized that the fact of being there was the most important thing. It’s not that every time we pray that there is going to be some deep divine revelation. This is common mistake that people make that if something does not happen there and then then it’s a waste of time. On the contrary that is exactly what we should be doing with the Lord wasting time with him. Like we would waste time with our friends and family so we should waste time with him. Being there is the most important thing and making it a habit.

And so make time get to answer that question who do you say I am? Let us endeavour to answer that question so that we can say that I am each day through prayer get to know the person of Jesus.  

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