Christ the Cornerstone

How to pray always without becoming weary

“Prayer is an exercise of love.” (St. Teresa of Ávila, The Book of Her Life, 7:12)

In the Gospel reading for this weekend (Lk 18:1-8), the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus tells his disciples (and all of us) a parable about the necessity “to pray always without becoming weary” (Lk 18:1).

According to this parable, a dishonest judge is persuaded to do the right thing because the petitioner refuses to give up, pestering him until he eventually decides in her favor.

After telling the parable, Jesus urges the disciples (and all of us): “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them ­speedily” (Lk 18:6-8).

The meaning of the parable is not complicated. If we constantly ask God our Father, who is after all an honest judge, he will hear us and respond. Not necessarily the way we think he should, and not always according to our timeline, but our faith assures us that God always hears our prayers, and he always answers them.

What are we to make of the Gospel’s first sentence, “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary”? (Lk 18:1)

Clearly, the more we pray, the more we set before God our hopes, fears, desires and requests for mercy. And the more we pray, the more opportunities we give God to hear us and respond. But “to pray always” seems excessive—impossible even. How do we ordinary human beings who are preoccupied with the demands of daily living “pray always”?

To understand what Jesus is saying here, we must first be clear about what prayer is, and what it is not.

Too often, we associate prayer with reciting words according to a prescribed formula, and, of course, our traditional prayers such as the Our Father, the Hail Mary and many more established prayers fit this description.

But authentic prayer is much more than saying words—no matter how divinely inspired these words are. Real prayer comes from the heart. It is an openness to dialogue with God, a willingness to listen attentively to (and to really hear) what God wishes to communicate to us. Sometimes prayer is silent. Other times, it is integrated into the noise and the busyness of our lives.

To pray always without becoming weary requires a peaceful surrender to the Holy Spirit and the willingness to “let go, let God.” If we try to do all the talking, and if we become obsessed by all the things we want to say, we truly do become weary.

God already knows everything we want to tell him, so why not relax and simply allow Jesus to walk with us (as he did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus) and to guide us as we journey together as pilgrims on the road to life?

St. Teresa of Ávila, whose memorial we will celebrate tomorrow (Oct. 15), was an “expert” on prayer. She would deny that, of course, insisting that when it comes to prayer we are all beginners.

Still, St. Teresa earned the title doctor of the Church because of her writings on prayer. She freely admitted that her first attempts “to pray always” were not successful. She struggled with distractions and excuses to the point where her efforts made her physically ill. It wasn’t until she let go of her struggles and allowed the Holy Spirit to pray with her and for her, that she came to understand “how to pray always without becoming weary.”

As St. Teresa expressed this:

Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything. (The Book of Her Life, 8:5)

The important thing is not to talk much but to love much. If our hearts are filled to overflowing with love, we will pray always. If we long for God and strive always to know him, love him and serve him, our entire lives will be prayers of adoration, petition and thanksgiving. This does not mean that we should stop saying the Our Father, Hail Mary or other traditional prayers.

On the contrary, we should frequently pray these beautiful words with hearts that are full of love, and we should constantly ask our Just Judge to hear and answer all our prayers—spoken and unspoken. †