What is already known.

How Do You Write About Prayer?

How is it that you would describe exactly what it is, what it feels like? Francisco de Osuna has many names for prayer—Recollection, Meditation, Contemplation, Praise, Devotion, Intercession, Petition. There are many, many names that would fit the description of what we as Christians call this thing of prayer. It is a subject that has no shortage of material, and by no means is its importance not emphasized greatly in any true Christian circles.

So how is it that you could rehash and summarize so much of the material the spiritual masters and saints have harped upon for the last 2,000 years? I think it would be impossible and almost heretical to write anything new about the subject of prayer. I even almost feel inadequate and internally disgusted that I would even attempt to take on the subject myself.

No one likes a busybody. Even our Lord rebuked Martha for tallying about, running around from one worldly task to the next. Everyone knows at least one person in their lives who just won’t stop and be quiet for one single second. There is always someone to push upon us a new task or worry; there is constant noise in our ears, whether it be from our jobs, our children, our spouse. Every store and restaurant that caters to our lower faculties has some sort of noise or pop music. There is traffic, construction, fireworks—a cacophony of discord in our environment. It is inescapable and, oftentimes, tyrannical. Even those living in rural areas still experience this "Martha syndrome."

This tyranny of noise and prayer—there is a rather uncomfortable question that needs to be asked to the modern Catholic man: Do you know how to pray? Do you know how to silence the inner and outer Marthas that constantly beckon us to worry? Is it the fact—and we can be honest about this subject—that most find prayer mind-numbingly boring? My spiritual father, Friar Anthony, says that he often encounters rooms full of people whom he asks if they pray, and many answer in the negative. They do indeed neglect this core Christian practice.

We have honestly lost the ability to sit in silence and just be bored for a long time. And of course, I can rave like the madman I am for hours and hours about the evils of technology and occultism that are prevalent today, but that still won’t give the reader any substance to answer the question I have asked.

Eastern mysticism—not our Orthodox brethren and Christian desert fathers, whom I have a profound reverence for, but the false religions, the Buddhists, the Confucianisms—many of their spiritual masters know how to pray, how to sit in silence. In doing so, they unlock great natural abilities such as controlling their heart rate, pain tolerance, and even the natural abilities of the soul and psyche, such as remote viewing and “astral projection.” Now, I’m not advocating for these practices at all, but I find myself rather distraught that many souls are turning to these Eastern mysticisms as an answer to the tyranny of Martha.

It appears the reason is that Catholic men simply do not pray or present prayer to the world in a palatable, digestible way. They do not know how to pray and do not know how to teach others to pray. Examples and externals are what attract people to devotional practices. If a man is internally recollected and has a disposition to prayer, he will externally reflect those qualities about him. This is what attracts people to spiritual devotion—those looking for a ticket to escape the ear-bleeding noise, to enter into dialogue with the divine.

This dialogue isn't as boring as we might think. It is almost blasphemous to suggest that the reason we do not pray is because nothing happens. That is a negligent excuse and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the Christian life. We may feel as if it’s one-sided at times, as if we are the only ones speaking, but in order to understand the deeper meanings of prayer, we must not only read about these levels but practice them daily and rigorously.

Christian men must pray, just as I have stated that they must fast. It is not only in their best interest, but it is the number one priority they must have in their lives. Prayer simply isn’t about us or how we feel about it. Many people pray because they think prayer is about asking constantly, about projecting our will onto God and what we want Him to do for us, and then they do not get what they want right away so they stop praying.

But to pray isn’t to ask—it is to beg. We are lepers in the sight of God, in need of repentance. Prayer is a desperate plea to our Divine Lord, the Creator of the Universe, to give us the graces to carry our crosses. I have spent many hours in this silence, in the most powerful moments of my life, being ripped apart in the desperate pleas of silence. Waiting for answers, mastering myself, and giving myself over to God in this prayer of the beggar. I have learned more about human nature and the nature of the divine than anything else the world would suggest to me, such as overwork or fighting.

Prayer is a fortress against degeneracy. A neglect in daily prayer will inevitably lead into some sort of error, regardless of how the man might view himself in the eyes of God. A man who makes an excuse not to pray is projecting his own ego and flaws onto God.

Such men, even if they be Christians, might not fall into the typical vices such as gambling, pornography, or alcohol—sins of the flesh—but they will fall into spiritual vices such as overwork, worldliness, and neglect of the spiritual duties of the father. Then, they will ultimately blame God for the outward failures of their life when their children leave the Church or when they do not get what they ultimately want from God.

Beggars will beg for hours to obtain the most trivial of things—real beggars for food and shelter, false beggars for drugs, money to gamble, alcohol. How is it that we, who are these lepers, do not recognize that we are even worse than them and will not beg God for the grace to enter into this delicate dialogue we are in desperate need of?

To sit for hours in this necessary silence, and oftentimes absolute boredom. To master oneself, to do what is necessary—is the call of a man, and the necessity of prayer is a repeated absolute in our religiosity. There is no masculinity and humility without this prayer. There is no victory, and all of scripture and the spiritual masters will say this. It is a fact. A man must learn to pray, and there is no excuse that is acceptable in place of this long form of suffering that must be done in order to be transformed into a man of God.

There is nothing new that I could write on how to pray. It is there for anyone to learn. I can only call the Christian man back to the homeland of his own heart. To reclaim what is rightfully his. I beg that you do this. It is the only path to salvation in this dark world that we must conquer. Prayer is a call to action. Pray, act and do not worry. Victory is promised through this path.

Ephesians 4:22-24Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

22 To put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error.23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind:24 And put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth