Pray in Secret

June 15, Wednesday 11th Week in Ordinary Time
Daily Readings:  2 kings 2:1, 6-14, Gospel, Mathew 6:1-6, 16-18

Silent prayer means listening to God's voice, who speaks to us.

Once, a reporter was curious about the sisters in the cloistered convent. He knew that they spent a lot of time in prayer. One day, he asked the superior of such a convent, "What do you say to God when you sit in prayer?" The sister replied, "We said nothing. We listened." The reporter was surprised, so he asked, "What does God say to you then?" The sister replied with a smile, "Nothing, God just listens."

It is true. God speaks in silence.

Prayer is a spiritual discipline. All spiritual disciplines are done to honor God and not to promote oneself. When you pray, go to your room, shut the door and pray to your father in secret.

When you fast, do not look dismal; put oil on your head and wash your face. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing when giving alms.

When Jesus tells us to do these things in private, he asserts that our spiritual transformation is God’s initiative and not our own. When we do these things in public, we are not honoring God but ourselves. Our focus should be on God and not ourselves.

When we promote ourselves or honor ourselves when practicing these spiritual disciplines, we are giving the merit of our transformation to ourselves. But transformation is the work of the spirit of God. So, to attain the total value of these spiritual disciplines, we need to surrender ourselves to God individually.

We need to shut all the doors that open us to other things in this world and listen only to him. Thus, prayer becomes a personal relationship with God, and he transforms us with his love.

Let's work on these spiritual practices for the glory of God so that we can get the most out of them.