I think the very hardest prayer for me to pray is the Lord's prayer.
Not that I don't know it or forget it... but if I'm not careful I can rattle it off in no time, thinking about my grocery list or what I have to do and not at all being present in the prayerful moment.
I was raised Catholic (and am blessed for it) and no one could polish off a rosary quicker than me!!!! Okay, that chore checked off my list! This beautiful act of devotion and prayer and meditation and I turned it into a chore!!!
It wasn't until I put my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus for my salvation, that I longed for a deep and intimate prayer life...
In Jesus' day Jews had prayers that were both spontaneous and traditional. Jesus would pray the same prayers at certain times of day... every day. For centuries, these prayers have changed very little.
Many believers today prefer spontaneous prayer, than prayer that often feels like we are just going through the motions. Many people feel that rote prayer is often hollow and meaningless.
We need to take a lesson from the Jewish rabis. They developed a concept called KAVANA.
Kavana means direction, intention or devotion. It carries with it the beautiful word picture of setting your thoughts and everything in us in the direction of God. It means to pray a memorized prayer with every fiber... with our whole mind, will, emotion and intellect. It is praying with our whole heart!
If we practice kavana in prayer, every part of us is straining towards God and every word we say has our complete attention.
Even though we might have said the Lord's Prayer a million times, when we pray practicing kavanah our focus is so intense... we are expecting to see or feel or know something... an insight from the prayer that we had never noticed before.
I think kavana is practicing the presence of God!
In every Jewish synagogue there is an ark (an ornate cabinet) that holds the scrolls of the Torah and often above it is a plaque that says...
KNOW BEFORE WHOM YOU STAND
We all would do well to remember this... whether we are praying or not!
Don't forget the God of the Universe, the King, the Majesty is who we address in prayer!
Kavana can also go beyond prayer. It can apply to our life in general. We can
practice the presence of God in our lives... every minute!
Shouldn't we live every second with love and devotion and INTENTION for the Father? If we can pursue God with our whole being and heart what a life it would be!!
One of my favorite scriptures is Romans 12 :1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Paul is saying... Look at what God has done for you!!!! He has blessed you and ransomed you with the blood of His Son. He cares for you and loves you with an everlasting love. He lavishes upon you undeserved blessings upon undeserved blessings! You did nothing to deserve this. It is only because of who HE is that He has mercy on you!
So....
Because of this knowledge the only reasonable response to what God has done for you is to give all of you over to Him... like a sacrifice! You can worship God with your whole body and whole life for all of your life.
Now that's living out the concept of kavana in a big way!
As we enter this time of National prayer and Thanksgiving... pray with every fiber in you... run hard after God... and live for Him as a way of worshiping Him.
Practice the presence of God and KNOW BEFORE WHOM YOU STAND!
Oh, Yvonne, thank you so much for your Sunday posts. I love your relationship with our Lord. You give such time and purpose in developing these each Sunday. I appreciate them.
ReplyDeleteYvonne, I'm a recent follower of yours, and I, too, was raised Catholic. I completely understand what you mean by rote prayer - its what we did. I find your post informative & refreshing, and I look forward to these, along with your great home posts. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of KNOW BEFORE WHOM YOU STAND. I think that intentionally remembering that will change to focus of my prayers.
ReplyDeleteFondly,
Glenda
Beautifully written Yvonne. Love the saying Know Before Whom You Stand. Very important to pray with a spirit of honor and faith. Thank you for sharing your words today with all of us.
ReplyDeleteKathysue
Amen.
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ReplyDeletePraying by rote is not unusual.Nor is it restricted to Catholics. It is a habit of people who are young, or lazy, or not necessarily thinking about what they are doing. Personally, I am offended that you would single out a group. But it is now trendy and popular to bash those people. I m not one either, but I will not be coming here to visit for a nice read anymore. Shame on you. Why don't you pick on Jews, Blacks, or Mormons? After all, everyone else did.
ReplyDeleteDear UNKNOWN, I was not picking on one group. I love and respect my Catholic roots, and I was only writing about my own personal experience, and my own shame of taking something as wonderful as the rosary and it's beautiful scripture filled prayer and not paying attention to the words. If you read my post, you would see that I am blessed by my Catholic faith. It was not a bash or singling out any one group at all. You missed the point! If you knew me better, you would know my love for all people. I would never intentionally demean any group of people.
DeleteI am very sorry you were offended. I wish you would have left your name. I'll be more careful in the future.
May you be blessed! Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you for your Sunday devotional.posts.
ReplyDeleteWe say the Lords prayer every week at the end of our meeting and I do THINK about the words as I say them. Now like when I was a child, also raised Catholic and just rattled them off. beautiful post. XO
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me our pastor used the very same scripture today from Romans. Thanks for reminding us to live in constant realization that God is present with us always.
ReplyDeleteYvonne, I too was raised Catholic and am blessed by my roots but I too, could zoom through my prayers without really thinking about them. Happily, I have learned to be present...I generally don't pray rote prayers anymore but I sure to love what you had to say...you are spot on!
ReplyDeleteWhether we were raised catholic or in a denominational protestant church many of us (myself included) repeated the prayers and sang the hymns without really thinking about Who we were worshipping. I love what you are saying...and no matter what church we attend or if we don't attend...you are right we need to pursue God with our whole being ! Know before Whom You Stand-amen
ReplyDeleteYvonne, thank you for this post; it is such a good reminder for us to "Know Before Whom You Stand"!
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful Yvonne. Thank you for sharing your heart and for loving others enough to remind us that it is not about us, who we are or what we do or even about what God does for us, but about Who He is and about What He Did for us already. We truly are blessed beyond measure!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written. It is all about a relationship with Him.
ReplyDeleteVery thought provoking and much to consider in those five simple words....Know. Before. Whom. You. Stand. Wow!! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThankyou for your thoughts about prayers we say in church.(I'm Lutheran) We say the Our father every Sunday. I for one appreciate what you said, and I am going to be more mindful next time I recite it. Thankyou for your thought provoking words! Whishing you and yours the very best. Looking forward to your next post. Yours in Christ Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post. I read this as I sas here at church with a precious autistic boy that I sit with every Sunday night. He watches Veggie Tales and I listen to our service live-stream and look at blogs. I was arrested by those five words. Know before whom you stand! I think I will print these words and post them in conspicuous places, the fridge, the bathroom mirror, my desk, as a reminder. We stand before Him but one day every knee will bow. Thank you for this post from your heart.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has a personal relationship with their God. Thank you for reminding me when I was much, much younger, I thought going to church was boring. Had to get through it for catechism. Now I read the bible, prayer book and even this post with conviction. Found your blog through the Fall blogs. Also I didn't find this post offensive in any way. God Bless you, Kathleen in Arizona
ReplyDeleteLove this post!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your reflection on prayer. It will carry me through the week. Peace and well being. Diana from Canada.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Yvonne. What a blessing for you to have both the tradition AND the relationship! Yes, I too will be straining towards God today rather than hurling my "honey do" list his way. I think we often get comfortable in prayer and forget the it is we who serve Him and not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
I am a Catholic and truly LOVE my faith. I felt a "little" uncomfortable with your beginning comments, regarding calling the rosary a "chore" to be "polished off". I fell away from the Church for a few years, but rediscovered Catholicism's beauty several years ago and it has strengthen me each day.
ReplyDeleteI believe a child will pray rotely , but as we grow in our faith, prayer becomes a conversation with God. As our relationship with Him grows, this conversation becomes easy and frequent, good and sometimes difficult talks.
I receive an email daily exploring the Catechism, and last week it discussed The Lord's Prayer". It was the prayer Jesus give to the Apostles when they asked how to pray. When I meditated on the prayer I discovered it is the most perfect prayer. Exploring it line by line it is beautiful and so powerful.
Thank you for bring to light the need to having God present in your lives every minute of the day. I pray each AM that I will follow Jesus to where he wants me to go and not get in the way of the Holy Spirit.
God Bless you and your family this Thanksgiving and wishing you a joyful Christmas,
Ann
I love your posts Yvonne, especially this one. I can so relate! I would describe myself as an on again, off again practicing Catholic. Between my youthful years when I was lost to even now when I allow life's problems to take center stage over honoring Him, I loose my way more than I care to admit! But thanks to God's good grace and mercy I'm blessed as an older, dare I say wiser woman ;), realizing more than ever, how fulfilling devotional prayer is, especially the rosary. I was unfamiliar with the term Kavana until reading your post. As soon as I did, I knew exactly what it meant because I have experienced the insightfulness and presence of the Holy Spirit you're talking about. Oh what a feeling!!! Like you, I use to approach rote prayer as a chore but that's because I wasn't doing it right so to speak. Now when I take the time to truly focus on God and give my whole self - mind, body and spirit during devotions, I feel so much inner peace, and so much closer to my heavenly Father. I equate prayer to people exercising their bodies. The more you put into to it, the more you reap. I'm trying to practice the presence of God everyday in some little way and some days with all of life's distractions it's so hard or even overlooked. But I've learned it's the distractions and problems that always have me crawling back to the sanctuary of prayer before God. He sure knows how to grab my attention and I'm thankful for that!
ReplyDeleteThank you for reaching out to so many with your inspirational words!
Karen
Suzanne of Simply Suzannes at Home
ReplyDeleteDear Yvonne,
I rarely have the opportunity to read blogs on Sundays, given our busy family life, church, and family dinner . . . but I happened across this post and really enjoyed reading it.
I feel compelled to share a few words by Fr. Robert Barren, as they're in line with your thoughts and words . . .
'Prayer at its height is this very deep personal encounter with God. We're not always ready to move from the ordinary work day world right into that experience. Sometimes we need some rhythm and discipline and practice to get me to that point. Prayers like the Our Father and the Hail Mary are often a great way to lead us to prayer. They’re a way to dispose the mind.
Like the rosary, we repeat those prayers over and over again. We ask, what’s the point of that? Let us turn to
the Buddhist tradition that talks about the “calming of the monkey mind.’ The mind is always leaping around from tree to tree, branch to branch, thinking about this and thinking about that. The mind is always rolling. That mind is not ready for Communion with God. It needs to be calmed. That’s why the praying the rosary can be just that . . . a calming of your consciousness, so as to prepare you for this Communion with God.'
I appreciate your message, as it serves as a gentle reminder to us all - of the importance of clearing our minds and hearts of extraneous thoughts when we pray, so that we can better commune with God. For me, I'm always striving to make a stronger communion with God, so that I am better able to hear and follow Him.
Thank you for sharing . . .
Suzanne
Intentionality and practicing the Presence of God came to mind. Stopping the free flow of our minds and instead practicing self control and taking thoughts captive is a discipline not only of the mind but also of the heart. It changes everything. Praying you are resting and recovering well. Love, Linda
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