What is Prayer?

What really is prayer?

What really is prayer? “Your prayer is your conversation with God” (En. Ps. 85,7). Adolar adds that in every right prayer is a two way conversation with God, even when it so often seems we alone are speaking, to a certain degree, in void.

What does praying mean? Augustine described prayer above all as an act of love. He sees the soul of prayer as a never ending longing of the inner person for God and life eternal. In a sermon he states: “The longing of the heart is a constant prayer. If you have an unceasing longing for God, then you also pray unceasingly.” (Sermon 80,7) On the other hand prayer grows mute when the heart’s longing turns cold, when a person up loving. This longing of love then decides the worth of Prayer.

A common prayer life is not possible without an established order of things. In the earlier Egyptian monasteries a fixed time schedule during the day for prayer was unknown. Manual work and prayer were carried on together.

Common liturgical prayer for Augustine is distinguished from all praise prayer in that it is the prayer of the Church, that is of Christ living on in this world. Here Christ Himself is praying in his member. Augustine in a sermon says expressly: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God is He who prays for us, He who prays in us, and He who is prayed to by us. He prays for us as our priest, He prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Let us then recognize our voices in Him and His voice in us.” (En. In Ps. 85,1). Augustine wishes to tell us that we should as it were join our prayer which from a human point of view is so often defective, with the voice of Christ, who prays in us and through us to the Father. (Sharing a common Legacy, Symposium of the Augustinian Family and Course of Augustinian Spirtuality, “Augustine of Daily Common and Private Prayer” by Adolar Zumkeller. Pg 84)