By 
By Father Declan Boland
AT the end of Mass I say to the congregation, “The Mass is ended, go in peace,” to which they reply, “Thanks be to God.”
Hopefully this is a sign of gratitude for the gift of the eucharist rather than a sign of relief that the celebration is now over! Then I encourage them by saying, “Now let the eucharist flow into your lives, and let your lives flow into the eucharist.” I do this because now they are sent on a mission to be the real presence of Christ to whomsoever they will meet in the coming days.
I love the metaphor of ‘flowing’ as an expression of our deep relationship with God. His grace (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faith, wisdom, courage, compassion, gentleness) flows into us at every second of our lives, and flows out from us to others. It is something we don’t earn or merit, it is pure gift. I am one with the Source insofar as I act as a source, by making everything I have received flow again, just like Jesus. This river of love is beyond our ability to manipulate or control, we let ourselves be carried by it. In truth, real prayer is reducing the obstacles to receiving this gift and being overtaken by pure love.
When grace entices us and encourages us into an ever deepening union with God, we can be sorely tempted to want to rush and hurry the process. Our over concern with our prayer efforts often happens in the following way: we read books on prayer and spiritual growth: we listen to our priests and ministers speaking; we listen to others giving their testimonies and learn how wonderfully they are experiencing God. As all this presses in on us we leap ahead and try to put our journey with God on fast-track. We quickly forget that our prayer is numb without grace, that it remains at a standstill without the loving movements of the Spirit to give it vitality and life.
Because of pushing when “nothing seems to be happening” in our prayer, impatience, discouragement, or apathy set in. All sorts of thoughts and feeling bombard us, “What’s the use?” “Maybe I’m praying in the wrong way.” “God has forgotten about me.” “I’ll never learn to get rid of my distractions in meditation.” “So and so seems much closer to God than I am.” These temptations overwhelm us when we forget that prayer is not just about our efforts but the grace of God working within us.
Thinking that our spiritual growth is entirely up to us is not an uncommon temptation. Prayer is not a competition, not an experience of winning or of accumulating good feelings and great insights. Prayer is about “showing up” with an open mind and heart, being willing and ready to grow and change. There is no need to get discouraged with prayer that does not match our expectations of results or prayer that reveals our sense of incompleteness.
Does prayer take effort and discipline? Yes. Every friendship requires faithful attention to the relationship.
But beneath, in our heart of hearts, the reason we give ourselves to the effort of prayer is love, the love that drew us in the first place into the relationship, and which is destined to unite us with God. Prayer flow from a conviction that we will do all we can, knowing that when we have done our part God will take care of the rest.
“Don’t push the river,” says the Franciscan author on spirituality Richard Rohr. “Don’t get ahead of your soul. The goal isn’t to get somewhere. The goal isn’t about forcing something to happen. The goal is to be in harmony with the gifts that are already given. The goal is to fall in love with your life.”
A river flows along towards its destination easily and surely. As we enter the river of our prayer and spiritual growth, we do not need to hurry this river or shove our desire for God along like a warrior fighting in time of combat.
Our union with God will grow in its own good time. We cannot force inner change. We can focus on the wonder of this relationship and be grateful for the beauty of God’s grace. Always we can keep our minds and hearts receptive and ready to receive.
Each day the river of our prayer will carry us steadily along on our journey to God.
Prayer
Divine Companion,
you are very near as I travel
on the vast river of our relationship.
Thank you for your grace in my life.
May I grow daily in my love for you.
I renew my commitment
to have you be the centre of my life.
I pledge my faithfulness
to communicate with you every day. Amen.
