One day someone should compile a collection of photos of people at prayer; not the fake ones we see in some religious books but real ones of real people really praying.

 Something happens to a person when they are at prayer – their whole demeanour changes – something magical, which can’t be counterfeited. The mere sight of someone at prayer touches the deepest part of us and we can’t help but be drawn.

A businessman who needed millions of dollars to clinch an important deal went to church to pray for the money. By chance he knelt next to a man who was praying for $100 to pay an urgent debt. The businessman took out his wallet and pressed $100 into the other man’s hand. Overjoyed, the man got up and left the church. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed, “And now, Lord, now that I have your undivided attention….”

Robert A. Cook, president of The King’s College in New York, once spoke at the Moody Bible Institute. Cook said that the day before, he had been at a gathering in Washington and had talked with Vice President George Bush. Two hours later he spoke briefly with President Ronald Reagan. Then smiling broadly, he said, “But that’s nothing! Today I talked with God!”

These examples of two men at prayer, a businessman and a college president, can teach us a lot about Christian prayer. Positively, it shows us that even top-level executives and professionals still make time to pray. But in a very subtle way they also highlight the problem that today’s gospel seems to focus upon, that of the right disposition for Christian prayer. In both instances we see that God is portrayed as the big boss or the CEO of a corporate establishment. Is that the right disposition for Christian prayer? The request of the disciples to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1) can be understood as a quest for the proper disposition for Christian prayer. The reply that Jesus gives them can be summarised in one sentence: the right disposition for Christian prayer is the disposition of a child before its father.

The gospel reading, Luke 11:1-13, consists of the request of the disciples in verse 1 and the long response of Jesus in verses 2-13. The response of Jesus begins in verse 2 with the words, “When you pray, say: ‘Father’” and ends in verse 13 with the words, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father.” We see immediately that prayer, according to Jesus, is a child-father affair. In other words, it is a family affair based on a relationship of familiarity and love. Jesus uses the imagery of father here in order to correct the dominant image of God as the boss or the king who is to be revered rather than loved. Speaking of God as father has practically the same force as speaking of God as mother. Both images speak to us of a relationship based on tenderness and intimacy and not on power and authority.

To pray as Christians is to put ourselves in the situation where we see God as father (or mother) and speak to Him as His children. When children speak to their parents, there is hardly a right or wrong way. They simply focus on one thing, to put into words and body language what they feel in the heart. I know a man who took issues with his pastor for using the wrong prayer formula. His pastor had said “Almighty and ever-loving God” instead of “Almighty and ever-living God.” One wonders what kind of image this man has of God. Maybe he thinks of God as the Chief Judge or the Law Enforcement Officer before whom one must use the “right” words. Certainly he does not think of God as “Abba” (Daddy) before whom there are no correct formulas.

Children trust their parents to always do what is in the children’s best interest. “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?” (verses 11-12). God’s children should likewise come to God with a spirit of trust and expectancy, knowing that God will always do for them whatever is in their best interest. Children, like the friend at midnight, refuse to take no for an answer. Say no to them and tomorrow they are sure to come back with the very same request. Jesus teaches us, as God’s children, to show the same spirit of perseverance in prayer. He makes this point with the Parable of the Friend at Midnight who refuses to take no for an answer.

Speaking of prayer as a father-child affair finally reminds us that prayer is an activity that flows out of a relationship. We do not learn how to pray better, we become better women and men of prayer when our relationship with God becomes more intimate like that of father and child. If you want to improve your prayer, focus on improving your personal relationship with God, our Father.

Have you ever seen a counterfeit one-cent coin? Probably not. A cent is so cheap that it is not worth counterfeiting. Have you ever seen a counterfeit $100 bill? Sure. Why? Because it is worth so much. The existence of a counterfeit is testimony that a thing is precious. Anything that is truly precious is sure to have counterfeits. The Christian faith is very precious. And from the beginning it has always had counterfeits. A counterfeit of true Christian doctrine is called a heresy. Paul wrote to the letter to the Colossians to combat heresies that were developing there and corrupting the true faith they received in the beginning. Paul did not personally found the church in Colossae. He never even visited the Colossians. But when he heard of the corruption of sound doctrine that was brewing there, he could not restrain himself from writing to them to point out the counterfeits of Christian doctrine that were circulating among them.

Paul does not give a name to the heresy of the Colossians. But from his response and the things he emphasized in his letter it is possible to make out certain tendencies of this heresy. His principal advice to the Colosssians in today’s second reading is: “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (2:6). From this we can see that the heresy of the Colossians has to do with belief in Christ. Paul urges the Colossians to keep living their lives in Christ. Using the image of a house, Paul urges the Colossians to sink their foundation on the solid rock of Christ so that they can be firmly built up in him. Departing from Christ would mean building their house on sand, and such a house cannot stand (Matthew 7:24-27).

Paul gives three reasons why he urges the Colossians to centre their lives on Christ. The first is because “in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (2:9). Apparently the heresy claimed that Christ was not fully God but shared in some aspects of divinity as do many other spiritual “rulers” and “authorities” in whom they believed. But Paul is quick to point out that in fact the whole fullness of deity dwells in the man Jesus and that he is “the head of [i.e, above] every ruler and authority.” (2:10b).

The second reason Paul gives to the Colossians why they should remain steadfast in Christ is because “you have come to fullness in him” (2:10a). Many heresies thrive by promising their devotees a deeper knowledge of God which will bring their Christian experience to a new level of maturity. Paul tells the Colossians that in Christ they have already attained fullness as daughters and sons of God. In other words, they have no need for additional, esoteric beliefs and practices to bring them to Christian maturity.

Finally, Paul reminds the Colossians that “In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ” (2:11). The Colossians were mainly Gentiles. Part of the heresy could be that Jewish extremists were telling them that their membership as God’s covenant people was deficient because they were not circumcised. Paul reassures them that the baptism they had received was a spiritual circumcision, the circumcision of Christ.

We can see that in all his arguments Paul was trying to make one point, namely, that for Christian believers, Christ is all-sufficient in their relationship with God. This includes their redemption, their ongoing sanctification and their eternal salvation. Like the first temptation in the Garden of Eden, heresies often promise you that “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). But as we know, that promise is false.

There are many New Age religions today who adulterate sound Christian teachings with esoteric doctrines. Many of these base their teachings on the “Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ,” an admixture of Christian and oriental religious beliefs. Many well-meaning Christians who desire to deepen their knowledge and experience of God often fall prey to these modern day heresies. We will do well to heed Paul’s message to the Colossians that the sound teaching of Christ which has been handed down to us in Christian Tradition and the Bible is all that we need for full and authentic Christian life. Nothing more.

I sat once in a church behind an elderly American monk. He came in and knelt, his hands folded on the pew in front of him, he bowed his head slightly, closed his eyes and didn’t stir a muscle for the next twenty minutes. Around him there seemed to be an atmospheric change. It was as though we were kneeling in a church in Indiana and he was kneeling before the throne of God. I, for one, could not take my eyes off him.

 What would it have been like to see Jesus at prayer? It was not unusual for him to pray alone in the presence of his disciples. Today we are told: Once Jesus was in a certain place, praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray …'

 It doesn’t take much imagination to see the disciples sitting all around on the grass, on a rock, on a fallen tree – just watching the Lord at prayer. It must have been a profoundly moving experience.

 For us, prayer is a graced moment when we stop what we’re doing, we put aside the things that preoccupy us and, from deep within ourselves, we reach out for God. It is a moment of communion with God in which our faith embraces him, and we surrender ourselves to him.

 What prayer was for Jesus we cannot really know. His relationship with the Father was profoundly different from ours. That’s why Jesus never at any time spoke of ‘our’ Father. He always spoke of his Father or your Father. That is also why he said, in answer to the disciple’s request: Say this when you pray … . Jesus could say ‘my Father’ in a way that we never could.

 At any rate the disciples were so deeply moved that when he finished they asked him: Teach us to pray. They wanted not only to pray, they wanted to learn to pray well. The first lesson here for you and me is clear – the first requirement for real prayer is to want to pray – desire.

 The second lesson is equally apparent – our prayer must be within the prayer of Jesus, within the unfolding plan of God.

 We constantly have to ask ourselves, ‘What does my prayer have to do with the concerns of God and the coming of his kingdom?’ To put it more simply: What does my prayer have to do with God?

 You may find this notion a little surprising, even puzzling, but it is possible for us to pray in such a way that our prayer has little or nothing to do with God. Without realising it we can become so self-absorbed that our horizons shrink and we become entirely focussed on our own anxieties and concerns. Then God becomes merely a supermarket or a welfare agency, the handy repository of those things we think we need.

 Our prayer, even when we do make legitimate petitions, should express our worship and love of God and a desire that, above all, his kingdom should come because, sadly, it is possible for our prayer to overlook the prerogatives of God and actually lead us away from his kingdom. That is why Jesus says – Say this when you pray: Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come.

 This is the proper starting point for all prayer because this was always the starting point for Jesus. This is the spiritual light which must cast its radiance on all our petitions.

 This revealing radiance will tell us if our prayer has to do with the kingdom of God, our journey to holiness, our becoming like Jesus, or if it is just a collection of impertinent requests for impossible exemptions from the human condition? This kind of prayer is not ‘within the prayer of Jesus’. Rather it is a rebuke to God which suggests that God has somehow made a mistake and we have to ask him to fix it.

 So now we can see the importance of the 'Our Father'. The kingdom of God is coming; it is close at hand. Our most urgent task, more important than our house, our work, our health, is to seek the kingdom in our lives and to be ready for its final arrival.

 Let’s pray to the Father for our daily bread. He knows what we need before we ask him. Let’s forgive the sins of those we need to forgive and ask God’s pardon for our own. Let’s ask God’s grace to overcome the many temptations which seek to turn us aside from the right road. Let's ask God to deliver us from every evil. Constant readiness requires constant prayer but always the kind of prayer that harmonises with the prayer Jesus taught us to pray.

By Bishop Kasomo Daniel

The Bishop of The Society of St. Peter and Paul (SSPP)

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