Our Discipleship group had a special opportunity to work with author Sarah Cortez. She guided almost a hundred of us in expressing our own needs and emotions as a “cry of the heart” to God. To reach into that deep place, where heart and soul unite, and transform it into personal prayer.
As Catholics we can be very reliant on praying to God with the seemingly endless number of beautiful prayers authored by saints, clergy, and theologians over the last two thousand years. Most of us have a stack of favorites that we recite daily or have on standby for special needs. Rosaries, novenas, and litanies are powerful ways to regiment our minds and immerse ourselves in prayer with our Blessed Mother, and the angels and saints. These forms of prayer are comforting and reliable, but they can also be incomplete and impersonal.
It is lovely for a woman to receive a beautiful greeting card from her beloved. Even nicer, perhaps, if he searched out a meaningful poem and slid it into a bouquet of roses. But if that man were to dig down into his heart and write her a personalized note about how much she means to him, it could be written on a scrap of lined paper with grammar and punctuation mistakes galore, and she will treasure it till the end of her days.
When we formulate our own prayers, reaching into the depth of our soul and pouring out the deepest desires of our heart, we change our form of communication from recitation to conversation. We would never think of sitting with a close friend and reciting pages of words written by other people. In the same manner, we need to remember that God longs to be that friend that we can talk to about everything. He treasures our conversations and doesn’t need them to be poetic. He wants us to pour out our joys, needs, and sorrows in our own words, with our own emotions – no judgment, no grading.
At the end of the evening, one woman shared that every morning she gets up and makes a to-do list of things she wants to accomplish that day. She decided that going forward, she will write her list as a prayer; turn it over to Jesus and let Him carry the weight of her responsibilities, rather than shouldering them alone. Simple, personal, from her heart. Some days our hearts are grateful, other days sorrowful, still others, content. Let us share them all with our friend Jesus in our own soulful words.
Scripture: Read Psalm 142:2-3. What stands out?
Call to Action: Reach down into your heart and write your own personalized prayer to God.
