Prayer is Like a Combustion Engine

Good Prayer? Bad Prayer? Sometimes it seems like its outside of my control. The Average Catholic must have a prayer life. A life of prayer keeps us connected to God; the God of the living not of the dead. Prayer, in the long term, fills us with the fruits of the Holy Spirit such as patience, fortitude, and peace. How do we do it well? There is a lot of prayer advice out there and let me add fuel to the fire.

Prayer is like a combustion engine. It’s multiple moving parts moving together to create explosive energy. The pistons of the energy move frantically with micro explosions. The fuel supply must be timed perfectly with the ignition. The whole process takes place in microseconds. The fact that it works at all is a marvel of engineering. Our prayer takes into account our entire microcosm we are as people.

Prayer is lifting up our mind and soul to God. However, we are not just a mind and soul. We also have a body. Whenever we pray, we always have our environment, our past, our present, our future, and our bodily needs. One reason we may not have the best of prayer is because we do not bring adequate fuel. We can spend hours in a chapel without praying for a second.

What is good fuel for prayer? It is our sufferings, our joys, our intercessions, our petitions. The Average Catholic should get into the habit of finding fuel for prayer. The call of the lay person is to sanctify daily life for the Kingdom of God. Each time we have a moment that we desire God to be present is fuel for prayer. The times we want justice, forgiveness, peace, love, hope, and Faith. Do you have a relative that you always argue with? That’s fuel for prayer. Do you have temptations that you struggle with? Fuel for prayer. Is there nature that fill you with wonder? That’s fuel for prayer. Are you celebrating? That’s fuel for prayer.

We can find good fuel to bring to prayer, but we must be able to ignite it with God. During times of prayer, we must have mental discipline and focus. An engine works best when it is efficient. There is a purpose in the engine design and anything that does not aid in accomplishing that purpose ought to be removed. Are we having bad prayer because God isn’t answering? Or is our mind too noisy and disjointed. Gas is only good if it is placed in a gas tank and used in the combustion process.

\We must build our mental focus to aid our prayer. The most extreme prayer are the hermits who isolate themselves and focus solely on God and penance. The Average Catholic will be lucky to have 15 minutes to spare for prayer. The fact of the matter is that God speaks to us in whispers. We must learn to quiet our minds in order to hear Him. A quiet mind is a quiet mind. Thinking about our worries and struggles and hurts and stress of life is not being quiet. God is a potter and we are a clay. How can God guide our thoughts if we are staunchly obsessed about our self.

Building mental discipline means focusing our thoughts in such a way to be conducive to prayer. It is quite possible that we must use non-spiritual techniques to grow our mental discipline. “Grace builds on nature” as Saint Thomas Aquinas says. An exercise of counting, or making lists, or memorization are ways to block out distractions and concentrate. A hobby that requires focus can be a catalyst for prayer. Any repetitive task occupies the mind just enough to open ourselves up to the promptings of God. The Average Catholic may not thrive in a chapel, but we can and ought to bring God into our daily life.

We can have the fuel, we can set the fuel on fire, but what’s the point if the pistons won’t move? Everyone asks, “What is God’s plan for me?” But not many ask, “Will I do what He tells me?” A reason we could be having bad prayer is that we are not open to God’s will. We have harden hearts that refuse to be molded by God. I know I have been in prayer about discernment. I prayed and received an answer from God. I immediately kept on praying, because I did not like the answer. I brought the fuel, lit it, and combusted into non-action. Asking what prevents us from acting on God’s Will is good fuel for prayer!

Our obstinacy against God is a direct result from Original Sin. The difference between a Saint and a sinner is the motto of John the Baptist, “Let Him increase as I decrease.” (John 3:30) Our ego drives us to go where we are the most comfortable, safe, and pleasurable. If we cannot deny ourselves these base instincts, then our prayer will never be fruitful.

If you have problems with prayer, then think about your engine. Are you bringing good fuel? Our we eliminating distractions and clearing our mind to hear God’s voice? Are we open to God’s Will? Prayer won’t work if we can’t give God all of ourselves. Don’t forget. God gave all of Himself through Jesus dying on the cross. We must be willing to do at least that to grow in our relationship with God.

Growing in prayer is simply fine tuning our prayer engine. It requires of us to pray, act, reflect, pray some more, and reflect some more. Some days we will have bad prayer. Some days we will have good prayer. Don’t be discourage if prayer isn’t working. God is Emmanuel. He wants us to be in union with Him. There will be times when it appears our engine is not firing all pistons. That will happen and it is not a problem about lack of Faith. True lack of faith is when you stop praying to God. We simply need to lift our hearts and mind to Him and have the confidence that prayer has power. Trust God and watch explosions of holiness.