This week I’m sharing a reflection on prayer and discernment that grounded me in my thinking this week. Blessings on your week ahead!
By definition, discernment is all about prayer. If I am to discern well, I must have a prayer life. Having a prayer life involves more than simply praying every day. It is a core experience of my day-to-day life. Prayer does not necessarily take up a lot of my time, but it does take up a lot of my interior space, in terms of its impact on the whole of my life. I understand prayer as crucial to my well-being. When a companion sincerely asks, “How are you?” the state of my prayer life will be an important part of my answer. It is almost as if my prayer life were a person with whom I am in a loving relationship: I care for it, nurture it, and give my whole heart to it. My prayer life, in turn, nurtures me, grounds me, and gives me direction. Sad to say, I also neglect my prayer life. I get bored with it and tussle with it. Sometimes we just don’t get along. But I am always in relationship with it.
A prayer life doesn’t have to be mystical, beautiful, or inspirational. Even to seasoned pray‑ers this spiritual habit often seems quite ordinary and uneventful. What is crucial is the prayer’s importance to the one doing the praying. All that matters is that a person pray a little every day in order to grow closer to the God, who very dearly desires to grow closer to that person.
—Excerpted from God’s Voice Within by Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ
Keeping the Faith 