Prayer – A Look Toward Heaven

By Father Selvaraj Sinnappan

St. Francis of the Tejas Catholic Church

HOUSTON COUNTY – Editor’s note: While speaking with some of our local pastors about the power of prayer, Father Selvaraj Sinnappan from St. Francis of the Tejas Catholic Church in Crockett was kind enough to send a more in-depth explanation of prayer. With his permission, The Messenger publishes his words. 

As in the Bible, there are different expressions of prayer. “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father in secret…” (Matthew 6:6). And, “In these days he went out to the mountains to pray; and all night he continued to pray to God.” (Luke 6:12). 

What is prayer? “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look toward Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and love, embracing both trial and joy.” (St. Therese of Lisieux). “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God.” (St. John Damascene). What is the expression of prayer? “Now in reality there is no real prayer until the soul begins to perform ‘acts’ or affections. This cannot be too often emphasized. The purpose of consideration, reflection or meditation in its strict sense is merely to lead the soul to produce acts.” (Fr. Eugene Boylan, Difficulties of Mental Prayer.)

It would be better to say a proper way of prayer than a correct way to pray, I mean a proper way is to seek the Holy Will of God and ask for our favors and our needs (not wants) in our prayer life and if you are making progress and maturing in spirituality, then our prayer should be (PACT) Petition, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Adoration. 

The word “pact” has four letters. Each letter stands for a different type of prayer. The first of these— “p”—stands for “petition”. We should ask God for whatever we believe we most need in life. Sometimes God does not answer our prayers the way we want:  but this helps us grow spiritually, too, because when one of our prayers doesn’t get answered the way we wanted, it’s a chance for us to learn once again that God gives us not what we want, but what we need.

Humility is the foundation upon which we pray in four ways. Each of these four expresses the covenant—or PACT—with Him that we entered through Baptism. It is easy to remember these forms of prayer if we remember the letters P-A-C-T. The example of a child before his parent is a good image through which to reflect on these four, although here in a different order.

First is Petition. During the first few years of his life, a child expresses his relationship with his parent largely by crying for what he needs. In our relationship with God, this dynamic is present: we continually make prayers of petition. However, if a person’s relationship with God is based upon nothing but petition, then the relationship will never mature.

Second is Thanksgiving. One of the first things a parent teaches a child is to say “thank you.” Because of our basic self-centeredness, we have to be taught to be thankful: whether towards a grandparent for a Christmas gift, a friend for giving a party, or a brother or sister for doing one’s chores. As people mature, they realize just how much their lives are built upon gifts given them by others, and how differently their lives would be without those gifts. As Christians, we mature further when we realize that in fact, everything in our lives is based upon God being so generous.

Third is Contrition. Humility is very necessary when a child knows he has offended a parent by his thoughts or words, in what he has done, or in what he has failed to do. In the same way, it is difficult for a Christian to admit offenses committed against God the Father, and to ask His forgiveness. In contrition, we admit that while God’s love for us is unconditional, ours for Him is not.

Fourth is Adoration. We recognize that in a relationship between child and parent, admiration or human adoration is something that only comes over a long period of time (usually after one has left home and experienced a few of life’s bumps and bruises). This human adoration is based upon reflecting on the petitions which the parent has fulfilled, and on the parents’ gifts for which thanks have been given, and on the contrition to which the parent has responded with forgiveness.

Yet there is also a deeper form of adoration which is not based upon anything that the parent does for the child, but is simply loving the parent for who that parent is as a person. God, of course, deserves adoration from everyone in a way that should be given to no creature. Adoring God in prayer means simply praising Him for who He is: God, the all-perfect, all-loving, all-merciful One who is divine Goodness.

Many of us struggle to bring God into the busyness of our lives. Yet God, who is the Lord of all of our lives, is interested in everything we do. Paul writes to the Ephesians : “Pray all the time, asking for what you need.” (Eph 6:18).

Once people have started praying, the most common barrier to prayer (for 80% of people), is wandering thoughts, even amongst people who pray a great deal. Two-thirds also found noise or other distractions a problem.  “Keeping concentration” is a barrier to prayer for 40%. 

We are not to worry about our mind getting distracted, but gently bring it back to focus on God and what we were praying about. St Francis de Sales said, “Even if you did nothing in your meditation but bring your heart back, and place it again in our Lord’s presence, though it went away again every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.”

Many Christians lead busy lives, with our minds working in overdrive to cover all of the things that we need to think about in our various roles. It is good to ease into prayer gently, perhaps by listening to a praise and worship CD, or by reading a psalm or another passage from the Bible, or simply by reflecting on what we have to be thankful for.  Then we can enter into a conversation with God with our minds properly prepared.

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi: 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy! 

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love. 

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.