Prayer is the simplest thing . . .

As a parishioner, you might ask a Dominican if he didn't think it would be a good idea to organise a small weekend retreat to help people pray better, or simply to pray at all. After all, you might have the impression that prayer is hard work, an effort, especially if you've been ploughing through books on spirituality written by such luminaries as John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, or Ignatius of Loyola. They are, of course, great spiritual teachers, but it is important to remember that their writings are profoundly marked by the style of the age from which they come. Engaging with these styles can be a laborious struggle - I didn't get very far - perhaps leaving you with the impression that the only way to engage with God is a bit like climbing a high mountain, which only happens slowly and with great effort. There are many schools of prayer in our church, and it's up to each of us to find the one which best corresponds with our personality. Some greatly appreciate the authors I mentioned above. Others perhaps blame themselves because they haven't yet attained such a degree of spirituality. Others again - including myself - reckon that prayer is much simpler than the writings of certain spiritual masters might suggest.

So should you, then, put that question to as many Dominicans as you can lay hands on you're likely to get at least as many answers as interlocutors. In part, that's because there isn't a standard school of Dominican spirituality, in the way you might find a common methodology or style employed by the Carmelites or Jesuits. Dominicans - ever pragmatical beasts - are simply about preaching the gospel using whatever means come to hand and (possibly) seem best at the time. More importantly, I think most of us, if pushed, wouldn't see why there should be any difficulty about prayer.

In today's gospel, the prayer of Christ superbly illustrates the intimacy between him and his Father. Jesus speaks completely simply. He places a series of requests before the Father, first for his friends, then for all who would speak with and through the Son. The union between Christ and the Father, into which we are brought in this prayer, doesn't either dissolve our personalities or hold us prisoners. The divine unity is rather the meeting of two unique persons in the depths of divinity, in the Trinity: the Father and the Son, united in the Spirit. True unity isn't possible without acceptance and recognition of each other's difference - it is because two creatures are unique that they are able to meet and recognise each other's independence as other, as different. But of course to engage at all there must also be a certain core resemblance, or similarity. If a lion could speak, we could not understand it. In effect, while we differ one from the other we also have between us enough in common which allows us to engage with each other. While being different grounds our individuality, at heart we are alike. We are children of God. This likeness to which we are called is recounted in the first creation story in the book of Genesis. We are put on earth to acquire that likeness, even though we have rejected the divine image. We reacquire this in the manner by which we respond to the invitation of faith, and, in faith, we respond by what we do, but equally by all the times that we attempt to live the divine life, that is, prayer. To pray is to speak to the God who is within us, who surrounds us. It's equally to rejoice in the beauty of life, in these marvellous moments when we come to life. It's also to ask, like Christ, that the kingdom come. To pray is to speak a word, as the Word has spoken. But for that speech to be true, it has to come from our interior silence. We must learn be still, to be better able to encounter the other, encounter God, and first listen to him in his silence. Then will come the time for our monologue where we bring before God all our worries, all our joys.

Prayer isn't really complicated: it's simply to want, despite all our struggles, to meet within ourselves the God who is Father, Son and Spirit. And if we truly want that, if we truly ask, we will receive the gift that the Father longs to give us: the Holy Spirit, the life of God.

Gregory Murphy OP