HOW DOES ONE LEARN TO PRAY?

First of all and fundamentally, by recognizing that the praying instinct which is native to each of us waits to be developed from an impulse into an exercise and from an exercise into an art. People complain of their disappointing ex- periences when they pray.

Yet how much of the disappointment is due to the fact that they take for granted that they can become conscious of God at any time, in any mood, with any sort of moral life behind them. They are making a colossal mistake. It is impossible for a man who on his feet is superficial and selfish to become a saint on his knees. The apprehension of God is a moral and spiritual process and calls for purity of heart, singleness of mind, a disciplined will.

Prayer is an exercise and an art as well as an instinct. It demands just as much patience, industry, and devotion as men give to painting, sculpture, or music. Mastery comes only with long practice. Proficiency cannot be picked up in a few short and simple lessons.

Brother Lawrence spent ten years teaching himself to pray, ten years of quiet, resolute, unceasing effort. The chief reason why people give up praying is because of the difficulty of prayer, the practical far more than the theoretical difficulty. And back of the practical difficulty lies something deeper. Ali Ghazzali, the Moslem mystic, has a sentence that cuts like a knife.

“If you are never alone with God, it is not because you are too busy; it is because you don’t care for him, don’t like him. And you had better face the facts.” Let us be honest with ourselves about this. Do we really want to 133 learn to pray?

Are we prepared to pay the price which mastery of the art involves?