Exactly one year ago from today is the last time I wrote a post for this blog. I had just gotten home from my trip overseas to England & Ireland and was inspired to write about my travel experiences. Fast forward one year and my summer looks completely different. I feel like I’m living in some sort of parallel universe with all the craziness happening in our world currently. A lot has happened since over the past 365 days, so here is a quick update!

Last August, I started dating an old friend of mine from high school youth group. Totally unexpected and totally unplanned, but it might be the best thing that ever happened to me. Shout out to my amazing boyfriend, Joseph! This year was my third year teaching and I’m still loving every minute of it. The school is great, my coworkers are great, and the kids are great. We are transitioning into a classical school model next year and I’m beyond excited to see how that will play out. Oh, and we are also in the middle of a pandemic, so that really spiced things up! Due to Covid, I was not able to take my trip overseas this summer as originally planned. Joseph was planning on coming with me and I was really looking forward to sharing something so important to me with someone so dear to me. Such a bummer. However, God has still brought loads of goodness out of my time being quarantined at home. He loves bringing good out of terrible situations. That’s kind of His thing 😉 And because of something that happened while I’ve been stuck in my studio apartment, I became inspired to write this blog post. So let’s get to it!

As my sister and I were talking on the phone one evening, we decided we weren’t going to let this virus keep us from connecting with each other even if there is 4 hours between us. In rebellion, we formed a virtual book club – just the two of us 🙂 We decided to read Time for God by Jacques Philippe and picked a time once a week to video chat one another to discuss the book. It worked out so well because we could be flexible with the time if needed and it gave us the chance to catch up with each other on a regular basis. On top of that, the book was absolutely life-changing and completely altered both of our perspectives on prayer. And now I would like to pass on what I have learned to you. Below are the main takeaways I got from the book. I hope that they give you inspiration for your own prayer lives and most importantly your relationship with God.

 

Prayer is not about Technique. It’s about Grace.

In the beginning chapter of Time for God, Father Philippe states ” the life of prayer is not a technique to be mastered but a grace to be received“. As human beings we tend to cling to our methods of prayer because that is the one element we can control. We want to pray successfully.  However, the point of prayer is not supposed to be about us and what we can accomplish. It is supposed to be about God and what he can accomplish in us. Prayer is not supposed to be focused on doing, but receiving. It’s a gift from God.

“…even though methods or exercises can be helpful in mental prayer, we should not attach too much importance to them, much less imagine that everything depends on them. To do that would mean centering the life of prayer on ourselves instead of God, and that is just the mistake we must avoid”

It’s not bad to want to find a prayer technique that works well for us, but the problem arises when that is all we focus on and we forget about God entirely. We need to give God space to work in us. That is how we truly pray successfully.

 

Having Faith in God’s Presence

Whenever we pray, it is essential that we actually believe God is present with us. This point sounds so simple, but it might have been the most profound message I received from this book.

“In starting to pray, alone, facing God, in our room, or in an oratory before the Blessed Sacrament, we must believe with our whole heart that God is present. Regardless of what we may or may not feel, the preparation we have or haven’t made, how good we are or aren’t at stringing beautiful thoughts together — regardless of our whole inner state — God is there, with us, looking at us, and loving us”.

After pondering over these words and thinking about my own prayer life, I realized that I don’t always believe that God is present with me, especially when I’m at home and not in a church. When I pray, I sometimes feel like I’m writing a letter and sending it to a God that is distant and far away. I don’t always believe that God is actually with me in that very moment. But the fact is, God is always with us and it is He who invites us to come and meet Him. We just have to believe He is there as He promised.

 

Fidelity & Perseverance

One of the most important aspects of prayer is not HOW we do it, but THAT we do it. In order for our prayer life to be fruitful it must be constant. We have to make an effort to pray daily for a set amount of time.

“What matters is not whether our mental prayer is beautiful, or whether it works, or whether it is enriched by deep thoughts and feelings, but whether is is persevering and faithful. Our first concern, if I may put it that way, should be faithfulness in praying, not the quality of our prayer. The quality will come from fidelity.”

After all, our prayer life is not just some spiritual workout, but a relationship with the living God. The more we think about it as a relationship, the more it makes sense that we must put effort into it on a regular basis. We can’t just do it whenever we are in the mood or need guidance. Any close relationship in our lives that doesn’t have a solid foundation of communication is sure to fall apart and not bear much fruit. As stated before, God is always with us ready to converse with us. We have to remain faithful and do our part of coming to Him. If we show up, the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

 

Less Thinking. More Loving.

When we pray to God, it is natural for us to focus a lot of energy on our own thoughts and actions. However, by focusing on those things we miss the point of prayer entirely. St. Teresa of Avila states “In prayer, what counts is not to think a lot but to love a lot“. And before we can truly love, we must first believe that He loves us. His love is what moves us to love, as revealed in 1 John 4:10, “We love because he first loved us“.  Letting ourselves be loved sounds so simple. but let’s be honest, it might be the hardest thing for us to do.

“Often we find it easier to love than to let ourselves be loved. Doing something, giving something, gratifies us and makes us feel useful, but letting ourselves be loved means consenting not to do anything, to be nothing. “

We also have to make sure our perception of God’s love is not based on our own merit. God love for us isn’t based on our performance or what we accomplish.

In the relationship with God our first act of love, one that must remain the basis for every act of love for him, is this: to believe that he loves us, and to let ourselves be loved in our poverty, just as we are, quite apart from any merits or virtues we may possess. With this as the grounding of our relationship with God, the relationship is on sound footing. Otherwise it is distorted by a certain Phariseeism, its center not ultimately occupied by God but by our own selves, our activity, our virtue, or some such thing.

I think entering into prayer knowing that love is not only the aim, but also the foundation could really revolutionize the way we approach our prayer lives. You could simply start your time of prayer by saying “God, I believe in your love for me. Help me to grow in my love for you during our time together.” I think that mindset could truly change everything.

 

These are just a few of the many insights I got while reading this book. I highly recommend you buy the book yourself and give it a read. If not, I hope my words above gave you some encouragement on your own spiritual journey. Feel free to comment below on any insights you may have based on your own prayer experiences or spiritual reading. As always, I would love to hear from you. God Bless ❤