I have found that for many years I've been drawn to the writings of authors with OSB following their names - Benedictine monks and nuns. However, never so much as in the past five months since preparing myself to become a Benedictine Oblate! One of the most beautiful books on prayer that I've ever read (and as a spiritual director, I've read a few) was written by Joan Chittister, OSB entitled Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer. Below is an excerpt from this good book that may lay to rest some of your fears that you're not praying "right" or if you're asking yourself, "How is my prayer helping me to grow closer to God?" Some fears can be assuaged by knowing, without a doubt, that it is the Holy Spirit that calls us to pray and by just giving in to this urge to spend time with God, we are praying the right way. And I'll let Sr. Joan, an authority, speak to any of your other concerns and desire to have a prayerful heart:
Many of the prayers we say have been passed down to us for generations. The psalms, for instance, mark the cry of the human spirit across time. The Scriptures speak of peoples and prayers over 20 centuries before us. Prayers such as these in every culture carry the wisdom of the past to enlighten the insights of the present.
These prayers are venerable, a history of the unchanging human spirit. But they do not guarantee that those who say them will ever be really "prayerful" people they tell us only that people pray.
Prayerfulness on the other hand is the capacity to walk in touch with God through everything in life. It is the internal awareness that God is with me - now, here, in this, always. It is an awareness of the continuing presence of God. It is my dialogue with the living God who inhabits my world in Spirit and in Mind.
Prayerfulness sees God everywhere.
Prayerfulness talks to God everywhere.
Prayerfulness submits the uncertainties of the moment to the scrutiny of the internal eye of God. It trusts that no matter how malevolent the situation may be, I can walk through it unharmed because God is with me.
Prayerfulness is both gift and grace, both a natural disposition and a quality of soul to be developed. But what develops it?
Prayerfulness is fostered by the simple consciousness that God is. That God is near us at all times. That God is closer to us than the breath we breathe. That God is available, a silence in the midst of chaos, a voice in the midst of confusion, a promise at the center of the tumult.
If I ask and I listen and I reach out and I fill my heart with the words of the One who is the Word, then I will be answered. Somehow the path will become clear.
So take some time to be with God today. It will refresh your soul; it will relax your mind and lighten today's load. It will deepen the only completely loving and true relationship you will ever have this side of the grave. A prayerful heart is a grateful one. May the Peace of Christ be with you today.
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