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Prayer is not in time; time is in prayer. It is the language of God, the music of heaven.

To pray is to be caught up in the chorus of eternal praise of what is most real and worthy of the undivided attention of every creature. It is to acknowledge the ground and grace by which all life exists. It is the soul's breath.

We could think of prayer as a walk with God. The disciples of Jesus, accompanying Him on the road, asked Him, "Lord, teach us how to pray." Jesus, knowing their practices and their prejudices, instructed them not to confuse prayer with a lot of words.

To pray "hard," as we sometimes say, is not so much a matter of length and repetition, but of focus, of giving undivided attention to the One to whom our prayer is directed. Prayer is not really a method, but an attitude.

"In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words" (Mt 6:7). Jesus refers to the practice among many of His contemporaries of rattling off the names of various deities with the hope of catching the attention of one of them.

Such a "prayer" attitude is unfocused and manipulative, not really oriented toward the real God, but more like a prowling tiger seeking its prey. It treats God like GPS -- radar or a mechanistic guiding system, engaging Him more as a dog in a hunt for a prize catch. God becomes my ally in the search for some favor, a tool in my hands -- not as the source of the good itself, let alone the highest good.

So, Jesus teaches His Apostles the "Our Father" as the prayer of prayers. All prayer begins with the direction of our attention to the One from whom all prayer really emanates. Jesus Himself calls on the Father when His prayer takes the form of words, as the Scriptures record. He invites us to do the same.

Dharmic religions chant the "Om" (or "Aum") sound, which is an opening of the lips to the mystery of all ultimate truth-and-being, a "reaching out" from the depths of one's being to the unnameable "other." Jesus, of course, gives God a name. We can call God "Father" -- or "Daddy," actually. The Aramaic word used by Jesus is "Abba," which is a term of endearment for a loving dad.

The rhythm of all Christian prayer is to the Father, with the Son and in the Spirit, reflecting our Triune -- three in one -- God, the blessed Trinity. Jesus is the pray-er, par excellence. As the incarnate Word, who shares our humanity, He pulls in and lifts up, as it were, all of humanity in His eternal prayer to the Father in the Spirit.

We are "caught up" in this ongoing pattern of praise and worship that is due to God and, by virtue of His human nature, Jesus alone is able to carry us into this holy union.

In prayer, we hitch a ride on this dynamic love-engine, which is the heartbeat of creation itself, the God revealed to us as three persons kind of "crazy" about each other, revolving around each other for all eternity.

If that seems a lot to take in, well, it is. No words can exhaust the mystery of God and no poetry can describe the wonder of the experience of letting God draw us in - which is what we do when we accept the invitation of Jesus to pray with Him.

On a practical note, I sometimes imagine Jesus sitting next to me as I start to pray. Of course, this is just a little game. We know He is everywhere. If I am driving alone, I think of Him as my traveling companion.

Pope Francis often says, "Let Jesus look at you!" That has to invite an examination of conscience. Without this "purification" wherein we come clean before God and allow the divine gaze to penetrate our souls, there is a risk that our prayer might not be focused on God. We could be too attached to our sinful patterns, clinging to the idols of our pet peeves, prejudices and personal "lines in the sand."

For prayer to be an honest conversation, I have to be willing to be changed by God, to let go of my own version of who I am and to let God form and reform me in the image and likeness of the all-holy One. It seems a matter of simple justice. Who am I to ask God to give me anything, if I am not willing to give God everything? For there is nothing that I am or can be that does not come from God.

To summarize, prayer is, first and foremost, an attitude -- ultimately a habit -- of a heart open to God as God is. It is a willingness to let Jesus lead us to the Father through His Holy Spirit, who might be thought of as the kiss between the Father and the Son.

This prayer-attitude will always be a cleansing process as we face the chasm between our unworthiness and God's holiness. In prayer, we become aware of and must sorrowfully acknowledge our sinfulness, our non-godliness, even as we ask for God's favors and praise Him for His mercy and loving-kindness.

All of the aspects of prayer can be captured in the mnemonic "ACTS:" adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication. All of these will come out of us if we let Jesus be our companion in prayer -- the pray-er who always prays with us.

(Follow the Bishop at www.facebook.com/AlbanyBishopEd and on Twitter @ AlbBishopEd.[[In-content Ad]]

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