Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God (Lk 6:12).
In the midst of a busy ministry, Jesus spent time alone with God in prayer. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus often did so before making important decisions, as in today’s reading that recorded the choosing of his Apostles. Prayer is an important, foundational principle to experiencing and knowing God as well as discerning his will for living a fully human life.
The Mystery of God is not a problem to be solved. In our language today, we often use mystery and problem interchangeably, as, “I lost my keys, it is such a mystery.” Strictly speaking, the loss of keys is a problem that can be solved. We can backtrack our steps, and through a process of elimination, the problem becomes smaller until we solve the whereabouts of the missing keys. We cannot solve or prove God exists as if he is a problem to be solved. This is because God is not a being, not even the supreme being. God is a mystery that transcends any finite dimension of reality. We have nothing to measure him by, no point of reference, we cannot prove his existence, nor can we solve him as we would a problem.
God is so beyond our finite minds, and yet, we can come to know God intimately. Even though he is transcendent, beyond our reach and comprehension, Augustine let us know that he is at the same time closer to us than we are to ourselves. We are only capable of knowing God because he created us with the capacity to do so. We come to know God through his invitation, and as we enter into the mystery of his reality through developing a relationship with him, we come to know him.
God does not become smaller because he is infinite, always beyond. His mystery is luminous as if we were in a completely dark room and someone turned on and shined a flashlight into our eyes. We wince from its brightness, yet in time, our eyes adjust and we eventually are able to see what was beyond our ability apart from the light. Jesus wants us to experience and embrace the mystery of the radiance and warmth of his Father’s light and love.
Jesus called each apostle by name. He calls us by name too and invites us to pray with him as he prayed when he walked this earth. Prayer is the most important thing that we can do every day and our prayer begins to mature when we move away from only saying words and directing those words toward a Person. We move away from knowing about God, having an idea, philosophical or theological approach with God, and come to sit with him.
Why not pray everyday and often? One reason is because the devil and his minions know how important and imperative praying is. Praying with God and coming to know him is the last thing the enemy wants us to do and he will distract, divert, tempt, and lead us to do anything but pray. If we resist and make the time for prayer, he will tempt us to keep our time of prayer superficial, speaking words, but not directing them to a Person or quieting our minds and allowing ourselves to be still and listen to God’s voice.
“To know God as the person He really is, it requires being alone with Him frequently. Without actual time spent with God, there is a danger that we will never come to know Him as his own person” (Sattler, 28). St. Mother Teresa also encouraged her sisters in the same way asking, “Do you really know the living Jesus, not through books, but by being with him in your heart” (Sattler, 20)?
Sometimes we resist being still and quiet with God because our minds are so full of everything but God, maybe because we are afraid of aspects of ourselves that we would rather not see or admit. God sees the fullness of who we are and loves us there. He wants to help, but will not do so uninvited. Our relationship with Jesus grows when we invite him into our pain, our sins, and our fears, as well as our aspirations and our dreams.
Be not afraid to make friends with silence. In the silence, we will face our mental maelstroms, yet as we breathe more intentionally and call on Jesus’ name, we will begin to feel safer, slow down, and our minds will begin to quiet. Then we can begin an honest conversation with God, speaking and listening, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly, and allowing God to love us there. That is when our prayer begins.
————————————
Photo: Evening walk with Jesus
Sattler, Fr. Wayne. Remain in Me and I in You: Relating to God as a Person not an Idea. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute, 2025.
Spiritual Stepping Stones 