My yellowing university notes attribute a wonderful description of conversion to a former professor, Tad Dunne. The work of conversion, he says, is to tell our story, tell it like it is, and guide its unfolding responsibly. I like his description, succinct, yet evocative, engaging, and comprehensive. Friendship, art, music, drama, humour, counselling, therapy, acts of charity and justice, these are all ways by which we tell our story. They rescue us from illusions, enable us to tell our story like it really is, and free us to become God's work of art, to participate responsibly, lovingly, and compassionately in the lived drama of human transformation.
Prayer is another way, and it does likewise.
After each we will apply them to the act of common prayer we call liturgy. Experienced spiritual directors have spilled gallons of ink describing prayer, and any understanding we can glean from their writings will greatly enrich our liturgical perceptions. In the limited context of this column, however, let me offer a little grist for your mill of understanding, and let your insights serve as a wellspring for the liturgical praying and ministering to which God's Spirit leads us. First, although prayer has particularly engaging moments, it is more a way of being than it is an isolated instance. To be prayerful is first to develop a contemplative stance in life, looking, listening always for God's epiphany, for the Christ in whom we live, and move, and have our being, the one in whom all creation is coming to birth.