Wordless Prayer

Matthew records Jesus as instructing his disciples, "When you pray, do not go on babbling as the pagans do for they think that they will be heard because of their many words." As a guy who often doesn't like to talk, I take comfort in this verse. For years I felt guilt about not having an active, living prayer life. Somewhere along the line I came to understand prayer as "talking to God." The problem was that on many days I just didn't feel like talking. So I felt guilty that I could not obey Paul command to "pray without ceasing."

And then I grew up and learned that prayer isn't just talking; it's listening. And, more than that, it is just being. My brother Kyle and I like to hang out a lot, but we don't always talk. We just like being together. Surely God appreciates the same.

So I have been liberated from the need to talk. As St. Augustine wrote long ago, "The desire is your prayer; and if your desire is without ceasing, your prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your desire is the continuance of your prayer." And as St. Therese of Lisieux has said, "For me, prayer is an upward leap of the heart, an untroubled glance towards heaven, a cry of gratitude and love which I utter from the depths of sorrow as well as from the heights of joy." Laughing, crying, playing, and resting... it is all prayer if done in the presence of God.