Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 23, 2017 - 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Wis 12:13, 16-19; Rom 8:26-27; Matt 13:24-43 or 13:24-30]"The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will." [Romans]
One of the challenges I give to retreatants is to do a "history of prayer" in their lives. What is their earliest memory of prayer? From whom or how did they learn to pray? What form did this take? Was it the rosary or a gesture like touching the holy water and making the sign of the Cross? Whatever the response is, I ask them to look at the patterns of prayer in their lives over the years. How do they pray now, in comparison to their first experiences? Great spiritual figures in the history of Christianity often tell us that it is the desire to pray that is most important because we may not be able to put our thoughts or feelings into words that may only be inside us, let alone expressed out loud.
This is why I think the words from St. Paul in today's second scripture are really comforting because we are told that the Holy Spirit accepts our desire to pray as prayer. This does not mean we take all this for granted, but rather that when we seem to be at an impasse in finding words or thoughts or feelings to communicate with God, it is the Holy Spirit who will accept this impasse and express the prayer. Sometimes this may occur when we are using a familiar form of prayer like the rosary, when we are moving rapidly through a repeated prayer like the "Hail Mary" without giving any thought to the words we are saying. We choose something familiar to use, knowing that it is something tradition has approved. Or we may be facing a new and difficult decision or situation in our lives and the familiar words simply don't express it. The Holy Spirit is there with us to help us see our way through, finding the words that we cannot. Our "history of prayer" can help us to see when that Holy Spirit has indeed spoken for us! AMEN
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