“We do not know how to pray as we ought.” Rom 8:27
Prayer confounds many of us. It is one thing to recite prayers we learned in childhood, make a novena to the Blessed Mother or pray the rosary. It is an altogether different matter to learn how to sit quietly and ask God to guide us through troubled waters. News that a friend is struggling in marriage or a relative is seriously ill finds us trying too hard to say the right thing or not being able to say anything to God or to to those awaiting our insight or reflection.
St. Paul's assurance that “the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groaning,” for us when we don't know what to say is a comfort and a reminder that anyone who thinks they can speak easily about suffering and death is naive at best and arrogant at worst. Saying nothing is often better than a torrent of words that makes us feel better but does nothing for the struggling person.
Words are often unnecessary and unwanted by others who are hurting. If we can lean to accompany the suffering in silence, we are much more likely to help them, not because of our insights but because of our compassion and love. As Meister Eckhart reminds us, the language of God is Silence. To be like God we have only to welcome life no matter how painfully it unfolds, and let our silence be our prayer.
Today, sit in silence with someone who is hurting.
When is it most difficult for you to be silent?
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