Prayer Itself
The great thing is prayer. Prayer itself. If you want a life of prayer, the way to get it is by praying. We were indoctrinated so much into means and ends that we don’t realize that there is a different dimension in the life of prayer. In technology you have this horizontal progress, where you must start at one point and move to another and then another. But that is not the way to build a life of prayer. In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you deepen what you already have. And you realize that you are already there. We already have everything, but we don’t know it and we don’t experience it. Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess. The trouble is we aren’t taking time to do so. If we really want prayer, we’ll have to give it time. We must slow down to a human tempo and we’ll begin to have time to listen. And as soon as we listen to what’s going on, things will begin to take shape by themselves.
—Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton reminds us that prayer isn’t something we achieve—it’s something we enter. In a world driven by goals and progress, it’s tempting to think of prayer as another spiritual task to master, a ladder we climb one rung at a time. But Merton flips that notion on its head: we don’t climb toward God—we wake up to the reality that He is already here. Prayer is not the means to an end. Prayer is the end. It is where we meet God in the present moment, not after we’ve cleaned ourselves up or figured things out.
You don’t need to wait until you feel holy, focused, or worthy. You start where you are. Right here. And you give it time—not efficiency, not perfection, but presence. Most of us already possess far more of God than we realize. We just haven’t slowed down long enough to notice. So today, resist the urge to improve your prayer life before you’ve even prayed. Instead, simply stop. Breathe. Be still. God is already present. Your only task is to turn toward Him. And in that turning, you’ll find that everything you long for is already yours in Christ. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics