Yes, In Today's World It is Harder to Pray...

In a fast pace world it is very difficult to slow down and center ourselves. We are constantly running around getting from a to b, filling gaps of time in our busy schedules with more things to do and if by any chance we find ourselves idle, we feel uncomfortable and restless. Lets face it, we are a little obsessed with being busy.
This is not a new phenomenon however, so why blog about this? Well, I work with young adults at a parish mostly and one of their biggest challenges is the difficulty of praying because of the business of their lives. They have expressed this challenge in many ways. They talk about being bombarded with information all day, of school, work and all activities that keeps you busy throughout the day and entering in prayer seems difficult. Often, they talk of being accustomed to having your mind occupied on tasks and so prayer as the emptying of a doing-mind becomes impossible.

This message is counter-cultural and this is why is difficult. From the outside, scheduling prayer or finding the time to seat quietly might be perceived as wasted moment of valuable time of your day. When the young adults tell me that they have grown accustomed to a particular lifestyle, they are indeed expressing a sign of our times Our eyes are entertained through screens, I-pads, laptops, phones, television etc. Do you find it hard waiting for the elevator without taking out your phone? Perhaps waiting for the bus or train without checking the latest updates? Do you constantly put music to fill the silence of your room?  Well, everything we do has become a response to some outside stimuli--I tell them. Being in silence and quiet brings aims at looking inside as oppose to outside. The introspection of being in silence allows you to deeply know yourself--and to listen to a God who speaks in the most inner part of yourself. A God who speaks in many ways, but only in silence can you listen.





The response is immediate to challenge this type of prayer. After all, prayer is very broad and seating in silence and reflection is only one vehicle. Is this type of prayer for all? Are some just not meant to seat quietly but meant to pray in a different way?  They ask me. While an aspect of prayer is doing, this is not all prayer is. I tell them to bring their busy-schedules into prayer and that God is acting through the business of their lives but I also tell them that finding a moment to quiet the mind and centering yourself is crucial in a rich spiritual life.

While it is very important to enter into silence and quietness, finding the time for God it far more important. it is in fact easier for some to pray in silence and quietness--but for those who find it very difficult I tell them to first 'make a date' with God in their busy schedules and honor the time however they choose to do so. Prayer in fact is not restricted to one vehicle as they mention, but prayer does involve transformation. The intention to move away from a busy-life that does not allow us to listen to God should transform us. At the end, we tune off from a loud world for one purpose only, to listen. If we cannot hear anything with so much noise, then no transformation is possible.

Before they leave I tell them that prayer is not meant to be difficult.  Prayer is a relationship. In our busy schedules we can find the time to keep the relationship barely alive, somewhat interesting, or deeply trans-formative. The difference is not in the amount of time in prayer, but in the quality of it.

Jesus Christ of the Slums

Being in formation for the priesthood requires all participants to be active in ministerial work. This can be a vast number of things, from teaching English, to working in parishes, or Catholic organizations, the options are many. I spent two years working in a program called 'The Mantle' at Port Ministries, an outreach program founded by Franciscan friars in the south-side of Chicago. Founded by Fr.Gus in 1984, the Port decided to make its mission the service to the needy. Beginning with a soup kitchen, the port now extends its services to distribution of food through a 'Bred-truck', a healthcare clinic, educational programs for adults, home-visiting ministries and a program called 'The Mantle' that tutors kids after school.

After two years of service in the Mantle, I have shared many wonderful experiences and have come across many hard realities. The place where the Port is located is one of the most dangerous and poor neighborhoods of Chicago. Poverty and crime are a reality that the children who attend the after school program face everyday. As I got to know the children and their stories unfolded- I began to know the Jesus Christ of the Slums. It is very common for these children to experience friends and relatives being shot or killed. It is far more common for them to experience absentee parenting, it is yet even more likely for them to never reach high school or graduation, but as these rough realities were being unfolded I met the Jesus Christ they know. As part of a daily activity the kids are encourage to keep a journal where they can freely write about something that is happening in their life. A young girl y the age of twelve once wrote of her gratitude and love for the world. She wrote of the small heaven that was the Mantle, where she felt loved and could love in return and referring to the tough times of the neighborhood she wrote of a Jesus who spoke to her in day-to-day small gifts like having her family and friends coming and going from home safely. Her immense gratitude at the things most of us take for granted opened my eyes to this Christ.

I graduate from Loyola University of Chicago this year with a bachelor's in philosophy which is also part of the formation program for the priesthood. As I travel everyday to school during these two years, I witness the geographical institutionalized racism of the city of Chicago. As soon as you cross certain streets, the Jesus Christ of the Slums is no longer visible. He is a reality that only this young black girl gets to experience by having been born in a particular quadrant of the city. You do not witness gun shots, robberies, infrastructure falling part, prostitution or drug circulation in the North side of the city giving the impression that we have left Jesus Christ crucified and have forgotten about it.

This two years of formation were a milestone in my understanding of mission and the priesthood. In a recent speech, our new pope said, 'the shepherds must smell like their sheep,' referring to the identity of the priesthood. These words resemble the reality I saw at this place called the Mantle. The mission is to places of need, our call and identity is to be with the people we are called to serve.