Consider Jesus as a resource for our lives of prayer. Shaped by a culture and a home life that reinforced prayer. Jesus probably took part in formal worship at least three different times a day. The everyday things he did were accompanied by prayer. But apparently Jesus couldn’t get enough of prayer. Even with prayer as the common practice of the culture he lived in, Jesus still
looked for times of quiet and solitude. Scripture shows him often in solitary prayer. ” In the morning when it was still very dark, he got up and went to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him” (Mark 1:35-36). “. . . he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. [Then] . . . he went up onto the mountain to pray” (Mark 6:45-46). “After he dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone” (Matt. 14:23). Luke tells in chapter 5 of his Gospel that, as the word spreads and the crowds gather, Jesus goes to deserted places to pray. Worn out from his public ministry, and from dealing with the scribes and the Pharisees, he goes up the mountain and spends the whole night in prayer. In Luke 9, Jesus is praying alone, and then he goes up onto the mountain to pray; soon his companions find him transfigured by contact with God.
These are just a few citations. But they help us to know that for Jesus, prayer wasn’t a random activity. It was the way he lived, which is what some spiritual writers call “union with God.” (Union is a kind of connectedness, being with God all the time.) Jesus wanted others to live this way. He meant for us to enter the reign of God here and now. When we look at prayer the way Jesus did, we are looking at something large and freeing. Our whole lives can become prayer.
“Doors Into Prayer – An Invitation” by Emilie Griffin
April 13, 2007
Jesus – An Invitation to Prayer
For Heather
I was deeply touched by this story and have decided to share it with those who visit my blog. I will be supporting the For Heather cause.
Festival of Books
An event I wish I could attend! Of all weekends I won’t be in CA!
Los Angeles Times
FESTIVAL OF BOOKS at a Glance
IN ASSOCIATION WITH UCLA®
Saturday, April 28 • 10 am to 6 pm
Sunday, April 29 • 10 am to 5 pm
UCLA Main Campus
Admission to the Festival of Books is free. Parking is $8.
Fridays with François Fénelon
A Holy Mind – by François Fénelon
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. (Phillipians 2:5)
There is a great difference between a clever mind, a great mind and a holy mind. The clever mind is pleasing because of its charm. The great mind excites our admiration because of its depth. But only a right spirit can save and make us happy through its constancy and uprightness. Do not conform your ideas to those of the world. Distrust the mind as much as the world esteem it.
What we call “mind” is a certain facility for producing brilliant thoughts. But nothing is more vain. We make an idol of our minds, just as a woman who thinks herself beautiful makes an idol of her face. Our thoughts reflect who we are.
We must reject not only this false glitter of the mind, but also every trace of human wisdom, no matter how sincere and useful it may seem. Like little children, we must enter into simplicity of faith, into forthrightness and innocence, into dread of sin, into humiliation-and into the sacred folly of the cross.
