Catholic Exchange

Prayer as a Source of Security

Of all the things we do on a daily basis, nothing brings us a certain kind of peace than prayer. No matter whether standing in line, driving down a highway, at the office, home, during a class, night or day, prayer is a pause, quietly from our regular activity.

During bad times and good, we turn to prayer at our Father’s knee. “Oh dear Father, help me say the right thing.” We bow our head, or just close our eyes for a moment, we clench our hands together and talk to our Father, “Help me, guide me, keep us safe.” We stop everything for a moment and step back from our daily routine, into another realm in communion with our Lord. “Dear Jesus, you know what is best, help me to accept your will.”

Prayer gives us hope. Prayer, then, would be a place of security no matter where we are or what we are doing. Prayer is acknowledging God’s presence. Praying is seeking Him. Praying often is getting to know Him and His will. Praying unceasing is establishing a relationship with Him, which gives us security.

Prayer comes in many different styles, lengths, and flavors, we can design our prayers according to our own personal needs. With this in mind, we can also know that others are praying for us as we pray. No matter where we are, or what we are doing, we are being prayed for, too! Praying is simple, we can just be silent and ponder how wonderful creation is and our Creator! Constantly thinking and talking to our Lord and God is establishing a relationship with Him, which builds our inner peace Inner peace builds our hope and trust in God.

Start talking with Jesus, starting relating to Him and become a peaceful people.

Here’s a prayer written by St. Thomas More as he awaited execution in the Tower of London:

Father in Heaven, you have given us a mind to know you, a will to serve you, and a heart to love you. Be with us today in all that we might do so that your light may shine out in our lives.

We pray that we may be today what you created us to be, and may praise your name in all that we
do.

We pray for your church: may it be a true light to all nations; may the spirit of your son Jesus guide the words and actions of all Christians today.

We pray for all who are searching for the truth; bring them your light and your love.

Give us, O Lord, a humble, peaceable, patient, tender, and charitable mind and in all our thoughts, words, and deeds a taste of the Holy Spirit. Give us, Lord, a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity, a love of you. Take from us all lukewarmness in meditation, a dullness in prayer. Give us fervor and delight in thinking of you and your grace, your tender compassion towards us. The things that we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labor for. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Comments

One response to “Prayer as a Source of Security”

  1. tgshaw Avatar

    When I saw the title of this article, I wondered if it was going to say that prayer is a source of security or that it isn’t. Like so many things Catholic, it’s a paradox. Prayer can be a source of comfort and security, but it can also be something else. I once had a high school kid (who’s now a priest) say to me that he didn’t like “We dare to say…” as a lead-in to the Our Father. I said, “Think about it,” and he replied, “Oh, yeah.” What more daring, audacious thing could we say? In the same list of blog posts that I found this one on, I also had a link to one ( http://friarminor.blogspot.com/2010/09/from-my-confessor.html ) that said we can sometimes get so accustomed to conversing with God that we can forget how awesome it is. Sometimes it sends a cold chill down my spine.

    I believe prayer is sometimes meant to be unsettling. It can call us beyond our comfort zone, in both prayer itself and in the rest of life. It’s impossible to draw clear-cut lines in our prayer relationship, but in very general terms I think I might say that our talking to God can be a source of comfort and security, and God talking to us can lead us somewhere else.

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