Let's pray always

St. Paul tells us to pray without ceasing and we have to take his words seriously. (cfr 1 Thes 5,17) We are meant to pray continuously, because we need to be always in touch with God and prayer is our basic way of doing that. And as a necessary corollary to that, prayer also enables us to get in touch with everybody else which we also need to do.

Without God who is our creator and source of all good things, we can only do evil. We would be like a branch cut off from the vine. We may manage to give an appearance of life and goodness, but without Him, we actually have and are nothing.

We have to be constantly aware that we cannot be simply on our own. We need God and we need to be with everybody and everything else. We have to overcome our tendency that we can afford to be isolated. We should never forget that we are always in communion and we need to make that communion alive and healthy.

Communication, which is primarily done through prayer, is indispensable to keep our communion with God and with others alive. When we would just keep quiet, there's no other thing that can happen, except, first of all, to be indifferent to God and to the others, and eventually to go against them.

That is why in the context of marriage and family life, for example, communication is essential and should always be done. When for one reason or another, communication is frustrated in these areas, problems will always arise. They become unavoidable.

Thus, when we notice that someone in the family is quiet or is isolating himself, it should give us a warning that something is wrong. And everything has to be done so that the flow of communication continues and greater communion in love and understanding is kept.

And what would give us the idea and material, the reason and the impulse to communicate is when we first of all communicate with God through our personal prayer. That is why prayer is so indispensable in our life.

Let's see to it that our prayer is truly a living encounter with God, a loving conversation with him, an intimate sharing of love. That is always possible and doable because God is our Father who is not only everywhere but is always in love with us, irrespective of how we are. In fact, his love for us becomes more special if we get into some difficult moment.

It's God who takes the initiative to come into our lives, into our mind and heart. It's up to us to correspond to God's initiative. That's why we need to have some time to pray, to pause and reflect, and to assume a recollected lifestyle. With today's noise, hustle, and bustle, a time of prayer and silence is truly needed.

Sometimes, because of our weakened and wounded condition, we find it hard to correspond, but God tells us to just apply some force on ourselves. "Ask," Christ said, "and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you." (Mt 7,7)