I'd like to tell you a story, then walk you through four fundamental categories of prayer, and then invite you to take a moment for silent prayer.
Fundamental to understanding prayer is understanding the role of speech in a relationship. What we say to someone and how we say it creates the world the two of us inhabit. You've heard the expression that the tension between two people was so thick you could cut it with a knife? They made that tension by their speech. Have you ever been greeted by someone who was genuinely glad to see you? What they said and how they said it probably changed your whole day.
The same thing happens when we pray.
I'd like to tell you about what happened when an American monk went to visit a monastery in Egypt as a sort of pilgrimage.
He was at a primitive monastery-- no modern conveniences, bad water, little food.
He was there in July during a horrific heat wave. Temperatures were in excess of 130 degrees during the day, and the American (and the Egyptians) thought he was going to die.
The abbot sent the American to a nearby mountain, where there was a cave that their founder used to go to as a hermitage. The American was led by an elderly monk. And because it was a pilgrimage to a holy site, they walked there barefoot. The American left bloody footprints behind him.
As you might imagine, the American was grumbling to himself. The heat, the walk, the climb-- they were getting to him. The American could hear the elderly monk saying something under his breath as well. But it wasn't till they got to the mountain that the American really listened.
The elderly monk wasn't grumbling. He was singing. He sang a simple song of praise to God, praising Him for the heat that reminded him of God's fiery love, praising Him for the sand, the wind, the mountain, the monastery-- his song went on and on.
And in that moment, the American monk realized that in this desert wasteland, in this hellish heat, the elderly monk had created a garden of Eden in his heart by his praise and thanksgiving.
God made the world by His divine Word. But He didn't make a monologue. He set up the world to be a dialogue. Creation reaches its completion when we return to God.
So what do we tell Him?
There's a really helpful acronym that goes over four basic things to talk to God about: ACTS. Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.
Adoration: fundamentally, we need to acknowledge God is Who He says He is, which ultimately means He is most worthy of love, respect, and paying attention to.
Contrition: nothing says God is God and we are not than admiting our faults, our failings, our need for God's re-creative mercy in our lives.
Thanksgiving: in this moment, there are innumerable blessings God has graced us with or is gracing us with; it makes sense to thank Him for them.
Supplication: in this moment, there are innumerable blessings we could ask God for, knowing that He is our loving Father.
You can go through these four things in 30 seconds or 30 minutes, or for the rest of your life.
If you feel like you haven't been praying these four things, I'll let you in on a little insight: the Mass is positively crammed full of all four of these. If you're anything like me, maybe you're not always paying the best of attention throughout, but all four are there, multiple multiple times.
I'd like to end by encouraging you to spend a few minutes telling God all four things: I love you God, I'm sorry God, I thank you God, and I need you God. If there's any one of the four you struggle with saying, maybe talk to God about that. Ask Him to help you figure out the missing pieces. Because this is how we're going to become the men we're called to be, by entering into the greatest dialogue, with the greatest conversationalist, the Eternal Word of God.
