Without life – God’s greatest gift to us – we simply would not be. But here we are, breathing, thinking, speaking, acting, hurting, laughing, fearing, and hoping. We pray because we are children of God and this is the way we develop a relationship with Him.
Many of us ‘talk’ to Him all day long. Some of us say formal prayers or worship communally. Yet, if we are paying attention, we quickly learn that the only way we can experience God and interact with Him is through the tools He gave us to do this: our senses, both physical and spiritual. “Everything, says St. Thomas Aquinas, including the heights of mysticism, begins in the senses.” In prayer, we hear God and feel His touch. Prayer is a relationship.
As creatures, human souls are both spirit and body. And, even though fallen, it is through the body that the spirit quickens, and by the spirit that the body is animated:
“The unity of soul and body is so profound that … it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.” (CCC 365)
In an unfathomable mystery and miracle, our soul is shaped throughout our lives during what, in essence, becomes a beautiful dance with God. Our ears hear Him in Truth; our eyes see Him in Beauty; we are touched by Him in Goodness. With practice and God’s grace, we can detect His subtle lead. We can respond to His silent Presence teaching us, leading us, correcting us, and loving us. We can move with grace.
God knows us and wants us to know Him. The process of prayer, this dance in which we come to know Him and share ourselves, is our lifeline. It is that spiritual umbilical cord that keeps us connected to the Source of our being. Prayer is the conversation that happens inside as we live our outside lives. Prayer is the place and time in which we meet God – here, now.
While God’s knowledge of us is complete, we need to ‘learn God.’ We begin this process by learning who we are, what it means to be created in the Image of God (imago Dei). Interestingly, one translation of the Catholic Bible renders Psalm 139:14a as, “I praise thee, for Thou art fearful and wonderful.” (RSVCE) The NABRE translation (the one used in the Mass) of this same verse reads, “I praise you, because I am wonderfully made.” There is reason we are wonderfully made – He is so.
We have been created to be awed by His majesty, filled with His Truth, and warmed in this earthly exile by His love. And in order to receive all His gifts, we practice the prayer of recollection.*
Let us pray: “Please, dear LORD, help me know the wonder that is You and all your Creation.”
*the collecting-up of ourselves in order to simply sit in His Presence.
Download the free pamphlet on the Prayer of Recollection.
Listen to a podcast episode about the Prayer of Recollection
Originally published in condensed form in The Catholic Navigator, July 2023’s series on the Senses of the Soul, published with permission.
