Our Prayer Life Should Not Be Like A Child’s Visit To Santa
Back in the days when I was teaching, I knew my students had a prayer life, for I could see their collective lips moving when I was handing out an exam. My youngest former students are now in their mid forties, and I suspect that most of them are still practicing the same limited prayer life.
We read the weather forecast calling for rain on the weekend, and we’ve been planning a hike in the mountains, so we pray to God, asking that He provide the coveted sunshine. We’re taxiing down the runway, so we pray that God will give us a safe journey, and not let there be engine problems. Our boss seemed irritated with us on Friday, so we pray that we still have a job on Monday morning. We spot a house on the market, one we’ve driven by for years, and ask God to make the price within our range.
Prayer, for most people, is all about ME, about MY wants, MY needs, MY fears. For many of us, it is never about God, or our relationship with Him. God, for many, is like a good luck charm, relevant only when needed. The Creator of the Universe, Who condescended to take on our flesh, and Who has adopted us as His own children, and has invited us to have a relationship with Him, is not Santa Claus. Our prayer life should not be like a little child’s visit, once a year, to ask Santa to give him a new tricycle.
Many years ago I was counseling a couple who were having marital problems. The wife had decided that she wanted a divorce, feeling, as she did, that the marriage lacked love, and that the spark had long gone out of their relationship. The husband was dumbfounded, for he’d been under the impression that all was well, and that they had a great marriage. He told me that he came home every night, and spent the whole of the evening with his wife. They spent weekends together, and, of course, loved each other. When I asked if he’d regularly told his wife that he “loved her,” his response was expected. He said he didn’t need to tell her he loved her, because she knew he loved her. She sat, glaring at him, and responded that she’d long ago decided that she’d become nothing more than the cook, housekeeper, and mother to his children, but not a woman loved by her man. By the time this all came out, the marriage was already past tense.
When was the last time we told God that we love Him? When did we simply sit, praying before our holy icons, and invite the Lord to fill us with Himself? When was the last time we thanked God for difficult times, and trials, and losses, and illnesses, because we know that all these difficulties have been allowed by God, because they have the potential to draw us closer to God, and lead to our salvation?
When Christ said, “he who has seen Me, has seen the Father,” He was telling us that we can have a relationship with He Who created us. Christ revealed the Father as One Who wants His children to return that love. It is not about demanding love, or else, for that would not be love. A child does not love his mother because she’d beat him if he didn’t, but, rather, because she has loved him all along, even when he wasn’t so good. God is like that with us, and all He wants in return, is for us to love Him.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Thursday March 31, 2022 / March 18, 2022
Fourth Week of the Great Lent: Adoration of Cross. Tone seven.
Great Lent. By Monastic Charter: Food without Oil
St. Cyril, archbishop of Jerusalem (386).
New Hieromartyr Demetrius priest, Virgin-martyr Natalia (1938).
Venerable Maria (Skobtsova), nun, who suffered at Ravensbruck (1945).
Martyrs Trophimus and Eucarpus of Nicomedia (300).
Venerable Ananias (Aninas), presbyter and monk, of the Euphrates.
St. Edward the Martyr, king of England (978) (Celtic & British).
The 10,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia.
St. Tetricus, bishop of Langres in Gaul (572-573) (Gaul).
Venerable Daniel, monk of Egypt (6th c.).
Venerable Cyril of Astrakhan (1576).
The Scripture Readings
Isaiah 28:14-22
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we are in agreement.
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
It will not come to us,
For we have made lies our refuge,
And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”
A Cornerstone in Zion
16 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
17 Also I will make justice the measuring line,
And righteousness the plummet;
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
Then you will be trampled down by it.
19 As often as it goes out it will take you;
For morning by morning it will pass over,
And by day and by night;
It will be a terror just to understand the report.”
20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.
21 For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon—
That He may do His work, His awesome work,
And bring to pass His act, His unusual act.
22 Now therefore, do not be mockers,
Lest your bonds be made strong;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts,
A destruction determined even upon the whole earth.
Genesis 10:32-11:9
32 These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Proverbs 13:19-14:6
19 A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul,
But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.
20 He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will be destroyed.
21 Evil pursues sinners,
But to the righteous, good shall be repaid.
22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
23 Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor,
And for lack of justice there is waste.
24 He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
25 The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul,
But the stomach of the wicked shall be in want.
The Ways of Life and Death
14 The wise woman builds her house,
But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.
2 He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord,
But he who is perverse in his ways despises Him.
3 In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride,
But the lips of the wise will preserve them.
4 Where no oxen are, the trough is clean;
But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.
5 A faithful witness does not lie,
But a false witness will utter lies.
6 A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it,
But knowledge is easy to him who understands.