Welcome to our Prayer Corner
Spirituality Notes
Collection of Short Reflections

Prayer is ... a Bunch of Flowers

The other day I bought a bunch of yellow Chrysanthemums and placed them in a vase at the foot of the altar. I stood back and looked. They seemed to glow. I remembered a similar experience at the grotto in Lourdes. My attention there, caught by a solitary Lily in a vase on the edge of the altar under our Lady's statue. It rested there in all its splendour, just being a lily - so too these yellow Chrysanthemums. Glowing in God's presence the flowers praised the creator. Just being themselves they rested in God's presence. Is not this what prayer is all about!

There are differences between us and the flowers! We don't see ourselves as having the beauty of the Lily! In God's presence we are conscious of the misery of our sinfulness. Yet God loves us. The very hairs of our head are numbered. He loves us despite our sins and miseries. His love heals us and makes us beautiful in his sight On another level, we are more than the lily. We can rest in God, our heart open to him. Our glory is an open heart reaching out to God, desiring him, loving him. The prayer of being in God's presence is to come as you are in all your sinfulness, rest there with open heart and thus give God joy.

Mantra
Is there a method that can help us to be in God's presence with open heart? The traditional way is by the use of a mantra - the repetition of some short prayer word. We rest in God's presence our heart reaching out to him - now in love, at other times in sorrow, sometimes in thankfulness, again in petition, often in longing for God. This movement of the heart to God is attached to some prayer word. We repeat the mantra over and over again as a way of prolonging the movement of our heart. The prayer word may be our name for God, the Jesus prayer, a verse of a psalm or a phrase from scripture. Preserve freedom in the choice of word so that God can teach you the mantra He wants you to use.

The repetition of the prayer word has a second function - dealing with distractions. No sooner have we settled in God's presence when all our daily chores and cares crowd in on us. They drag us away from being attentive to the Lord. We get involved in all sorts of schemes and dreams. When we become aware of the wandering we recall the prayer word. Begin to repeat the mantra again and again, and allow it to draw us back into the Lord's presence and rekindle the movement of our heart towards God. Everything, whether good or bad, except God, must be laid aside during this time of being in the Lord's presence.

Just 'be' in God's presence like the Lily and the Chrysanthemums, but more, rest there with an open heart.