Prayer is as natural to my spiritual life as eating is to my physical existence. Hunger pangs tell me when and how much I have to eat. Uneasiness in my spirit tells me when to calm down and seek quiet and solitude in prayers. A feeling of emptiness tells me when to stop and fill up on spiritual energy to keep me going on my journey. Pain and suffering tell me when to stop and see which direction I am being challenged to grow, to go and eventually to glow. Suffering is never desirable but it is through suffering I become aware of the empty holes in my life and fill them with God’s grace. My faith in Christ has always taught me of the salvific potential there is in suffering. Mother Teresa has often been faulted at romanticizing and glorifying suffering. But that is the whole idea of Christianity being born and borne out of the cross.
In prayer, I become more sharply aware of who I am, who my God is, and the relationships in my life that prod and push me along in my life journey. I do not know what or when the end is. But in prayer, I get a glimmer of what the future holds for me. In prayer, I am strengthened in my Faith, which has been my response to a call and invitation to a relationship with Him who brought me into this world through my parents and sustains me through the people He has sent into my life.
Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ They answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Messiah of God.’ He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’
Luke 9:18-22