Fr Peter Helman

Dear beloved,

Jesus was above everything a man of prayer. In the early watches of the morning and late into the night, during his ministry, he would often steal away to quiet places to be alone with God. He prayed at every turn—when he was tempted, in moments of praise, in moments of joy and thanksgiving, in moments of doubt and desperation. Conversation with God was the pattern of his life. His was a heart near the voice of God speaking through him and to him.

There are many instances in the gospels where we hear the words Jesus used to pray. Of course, he taught his disciples when they asked him for help. “Pray then like this,” he told them. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”
(Matthew 6:9-13). And so we pray these sacred words more than any other.

Some of his most poignant prayers are made during his agony and Passion. At his betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed earnestly three time, saying the same words, and his sweat became like drops of blood. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. But not what I want, what you want.” Betrayed and hanging from the cross, he prayed even for his torturers, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And then to the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Breathing his last, he prayed, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

It is the prayer that Jesus utters three times in the garden that I love most of all his many prayers. We read the passage from Matthew’s gospel this morning in the Daily Office.

“He said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want’” (Matthew 25:36-39).

Life brings many things, not all bad. We don’t need to be in the garden of betrayal to pray this prayer. Whatever life does bring, Jesus’s words lead us to know the God we have. God hears the prayers of our hearts. If we see from this passage in Matthew that God wants to hold every one of our deepest groanings of uncertainty and pain, how much more does God long for us to give him every moment and circumstance in life, to pray and be in converse with him always and everywhere.

“Jesus, this where I’m at right now and what I’m feeling. This is what I’m going through. I ask for you to walk with me and speak to my heart of your love which is life for me. Please give me eyes to see you at work in me and in the world around me, in everyone I meet and in whatever might lie ahead. You know me better than I know myself, and you love me. Let me hear and know your loving voice so I can know and love you more and more.”

If today you would walk with Jesus, upon waking ask him to be with you, to accompany you along the road, for he stands ready and desires above all else to talk with along the way. In truth, he is with you even now.


In Christ,
Peter+