Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Our Lenten Readings today bring us to the familiar moment when Jesus instructs us how to pray. Which means we draw our attention to a set of verses that many of us memorized before we had any clarity about what scripture was. Turns of phrase so familiar that they can be readily recited while our attention wanders to something else entirely. A property that has exceptional potential once we recognize it fully.

Think about some moment, for many of us it will have occurred at the end of the eucharistic prayer, when you were clearly articulating the Lord’s Prayer and suddenly a frustration from earlier that morning, or the shopping list for that afternoon, or anticipation for the brunch reservation enters one’s mind. For some of us this misdirection of the mind can continue a good bit of the way through robustly singing the fraction anthem. This is an actual hope of our life of liturgical prayer, a core principle of Lectio Divina.

The hope of regular recitation of scripture, of regular engagement of the same liturgical phrasings, is that eventually it comes to this point of emersion where the words can flow out of us as naturally as breathing. When we come to the point where we are no longer lost but able to go through the motions with no hesitation, without even a conscious thought, we have come to a point where our life of prayer opens to new possibilities.

The same space we find ourselves unintentionally filling with daily annoyances, shopping list, or dreams about the next meal… can be intentionally filled with any concern or thanksgiving that is resting in our heart. The practice is simply to begin with that intention, the name of a loved one, a situation causing unrest, and bring that to mind with a word or a picture. Then while holding onto that allow the part of yourself that knows the Lord’s Prayer by heart to simply start that recitation. Allow the flowing of these words to shape and transform your thanksgiving or concern. One can allow the Lord’s Prayer to wash over you as many times as needed until that moment where the “Amen” rings true for the prayer to be complete.

When we know not how to pray, we allow the words of Jesus to surround our prayer intention with words. 

Pax,

—Ben