Distractions in Prayer
One
God reveals his plan to Zechariah
Six days before Christmas the Gospel of the Mass presents us with Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.
Zechariah was a priest serving in the Temple when the Archangel Gabriel came to him, revealing God’s plan: You will have a son and name him John and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb and he will go forth with the power of Elijah to prepare all people to receive the Messiah.
And how does Zechariah respond?
“How can I be sure of this?”
“How can you be sure of this! Are you kidding me Zechariah! I am the Archangel Gabriel, one of the Seven Angels that stand before God. What more proof do you need?”
“Now you Listen! Since you have not believed my words, which will come true at their appointed time, you will be silenced and have no power of speech until this has happened.”
And from that moment until John is born, Zechariah is not only unable to speak but totally deaf, plunged into absolute silence. How do we know this? Because when the baby is born they have to make signs to Zechariah to ask what his name is to be.
Zechariah doesn’t respond with faith to God’s plan because he does not have the habit of listening to God in silence. To remedy this problem, Gabriel plunges Zechariah into silence, to become familiar with God’s voice so that he can know the will of God and do it.
Two
In the Silence of the Heart God Speaks
Mother Teresa once said, “It can be difficult to pray when we don’t know how, but we can help ourselves through the use of silence. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence. This silence takes a lot of sacrifice, but if we really want to pray, we must be ready to take that step now. Without this first step toward silence, we will not be able to reach our goal, which is union with God.”
“We forget that in the silence of the heart God speaks…
“The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.”
So, according to Mother Teresa, peace, service, love, faith, and prayer all flow from silence.
So, what is keeping you from spending time with God in silence?
Three
A Lack of Humility
Teresa of Avila confronts us when she says that the main thing that keeps us from spending time with Jesus in silent prayer is our lack of humility. Humility is man’s estimation of himself according to truth. The most basic truth is that God is God and you are not God.
God is God. He is the All-powerful, All-knowing, All-good God who is watching over and guiding all things. He has everything under control. He’s making sure all the stars and planets stay in orbit and don’t crash into each other, he is guiding all world events, and he is even feeding the little squirrels and birds outside your window.
Yes, he made angels and humans free and he respects that freedom and sadly we do an awful lot of evil with our freedom. However, God is so All-Powerful and Good that he can bring an even greater good out of the evil we do. For God works all things for good for those who love him.
But we are not humble, we are out of touch with reality.
We wake up in the morning and the first thing we do is scroll the news to see what we need to do to save the world. At the very least we try to see what we need to do to protect our business or kids or health from danger. Then we go to our email or to all the things WE need to get done because the weight of the world rests on our shoulders, rather than go to God in silent prayer.
We have forgotten – God is God and I am not God.
Four
Okay, you may not be a news addict, maybe you go straight to prayer, but you’ve got your own distractions.
Let’s be honest here. What is the one thing that distracts you from going to prayer or when you are in prayer? Probably one of three things: work, loved ones, or your health. Because we try to find our identity, self-worth, and security in these.
The Catechism gives us a zinger when it says that our distractions reveal what we are attached to, what we love more than God.
So, before we go to prayer or when we begin our prayer, we immediately begin to think about what is most important – work, relationships, or health and not God. And that is because we love them more than Him.
Now, don’t get discouraged, the Catechism also gives a remedy. When the distraction hits just hand yourself over to God to be purified and transformed.
Go to God in prayer and tell him, “Lord, here are all the things that consume me. I surrender them to you. They are not what I really want. Lord, what I really want is you.”
Five
The Annunciation to Mary
Soon after, Gabriel is sent to another person, to Mary. Yet she does not ask, “How can I be sure of this?” She doesn’t need proof. She believes God. Mary simply asks how this will happen since she is a consecrated Virgin. And she gets an answer.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Power of the Most-High will overshadow you.”
Mary believes because she has the daily habit of silent reflection on the Word of God. Twice we are told in the Gospel of Luke 2:19 and 51 that, “Mary pondered all these things in her heart.”
Mary spent time in silence, reading and thinking about the Word of God which makes her familiar with God’s voice, ready to hear, ready to believe, and to do what God asks of her.
It allowed her to be all in, saying “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be it done to me according to your word.”
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