ON PRAYER:  A HISTORY OF FRIENDSHIP
Autor: GERALDO N OLIVEIRA | Publicado: 2014-02-12T16:11:00-08:00


After a long
time of personal effort, and comparing my own experience of prayer to what many
people had written &nbsp;about it, &nbsp;I got some convictions that today seem
justifiable.


I highlight
three key points.


First: our relationship
with &nbsp;God is a relationship with a person
and not with an idea&nbsp; and a lot less with
an inert object, but with a PERSON .

Second: the only
significant difference between the relationship with the person of God and
relationship with a human person is that the human person can be perceived by
the senses, especially by the sense of sight .

Third: &nbsp;except for the difference indicated above, our
relationship with God resembles at all our relationship with other human beings.


So, it becomes
clear the &nbsp;utility in &nbsp;understanding better &nbsp;how a relationship between human beings starts
and how it evolves.


Every
interpersonal relationship begins with a meeting and an interest between two
persons . Generally the first meeting can be very significant or very unnoticeable.
It might be just a look . It may be a help . It may be a common interest . But
the truth is that it &nbsp;&nbsp;established, anyway, a bond that can &nbsp;be very strong ( like the instinctive bond
between a man and a woman) or may be weak ( as the common and trivial interest
in a collection of bottle caps ) ...


From that
"start " what follows is &nbsp;simple and very profound. Because, from that
first meeting &nbsp;it starts a process that
tends to be infinite .

What is this
process ?


It is a &nbsp;process characterized by a constant search and
exchange of &nbsp;mutual revelations .

In order to an
easy understanding , imagine a casual &nbsp;encounter between a girl and a boy. They felt
somewhat attracted to each other . They exchange a few glances and casual
greetings . At the end , one asks for the name of the other. Here is the first
formal revelation: the name. The other also reciprocates&nbsp; revealing his name .

On another day ,
the boy finds a mutual friend , and asks for the &nbsp;girl. The friend tells to the boy that&nbsp; himself &nbsp;will find&nbsp;
the girl and, if he&nbsp; want, he &nbsp;can take a message to her . The boy says:
Oh,no.&nbsp; But&nbsp;&nbsp; I would like to have&nbsp; her phone or e- mail.

A second meeting,&nbsp; and the boy and the girl reach a new stage in
the process of&nbsp; revelations : what are
their life projects , their current job , previous emotional experiences etc. .

New meetings ...
courtship… engagement ... wedding.


And the
substance of each step is precisely the quantity and quality of the revelations
, ie, it is the " quantum" of &nbsp;revelation&nbsp;
between two persons that feature the consistency and depth of the
relationship. In other words, the more&nbsp; I
know &nbsp;a person and allow her to know me ,
this is what defines the quantity&nbsp; and &nbsp;the quality of the relationship.

In the example
given , the first revelation was only the name . In the marriage (sometimes
before!) revelation will reach deeper psychological and physical levels : at any moment they reveal
bare one another , physically and psychologically .


Changed what
should be changed ,&nbsp; the same &nbsp;happens in relationship with God .

In general , we
start with a simple interest in God. He is always interested in us.

At the start, our
interest is sometimes vague, and is commonly due to the influence of some
person, as father, mother, friend ... and sometimes is born vigorous, caused
either by the admiration for the creation , either through some significant
suffering ...


After these
first meetings, one can&nbsp; start to observe
Him. We can observe His presence in nature , in history, &nbsp;in our personal history and &nbsp;in the history of others. &nbsp;He will gradually reveal Himself&nbsp; through many ways. St. Bernard, for example,
said he learned more about God looking cedars &nbsp;than reading theology books.

But, for&nbsp; to assure the &nbsp;progress of the relationship, it is necessary &nbsp;we &nbsp;reveal ourselves to Him. And, then, &nbsp;a question arises: for what I need to reveal
myself&nbsp; to Him , since&nbsp; I know that He " probe my heart and my
kidneys ," in other words : &nbsp;He &nbsp;knows&nbsp;
me deeply ?

I answer: Yes ,
He knows . But out of respect for my freedom He wants and expects my auto revelation
. My free act of revealing myself to Him equals the free act of opening a door
for someone to come&nbsp; in . Because &nbsp;He, Himself,&nbsp;
has said : "Behold, I stand at the door and knock ." He don’t &nbsp;breaks down ! He knoks, because He respects
our liberty, which He has given to us.

So, I start to
say to Him who I am , what I think, what I want , which intention led me to
certain act , what &nbsp;I feel to be my &nbsp;needs , what I think about other people or
facts, &nbsp;my fears, my joy , and so on .

And, of course,
I keep watching Him and hearing &nbsp;Him in
the nature , in the evolution, in the History of&nbsp; mankind , in the unfolding of my story and in
&nbsp;the depth of my consciousness.


Now I must tell
: Something occurs to those who dedicate themselves to the &nbsp;prayer as was put here : We gradually reveal
ourselves to Him and He will also reveal &nbsp;Himself&nbsp;
to us. By very rich &nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp; very
different ways , not always pleasant , but often incredibly pleasurable . It is
a way of mystery . I can not speak well about &nbsp;it , despite knowing what&nbsp; it is &nbsp;and how it occurs. Revelation is dependent on
the willingness. So, His revelation to us is a process out of our control. In a
way of saying coined by St Ignatius , it seems like God&nbsp; "enters and leaves the soul."

Anyway, it is
for the experience of each.


In short, the
essence of prayer life is an unfolding and deepening &nbsp;of a friendship with their bilateral actions
and reactions , their ups and downs, its heating and cooling . Every day I know
more about my friend and every day , by a growing and loving consent , &nbsp;I allow Him to &nbsp;know me and &nbsp;to influence my life .




At last, we must
remember, He will be very glad if we open the door of our heart to Him. This
will be a joyful new for Him, because He have said: “My joy is to be with the
children of men”(Pr 8,31).