One of the most interesting lines in scripture are the words of Jesus disciples, "Lord, teach us how to pray." They had the whole Jewish cycle of prayer, they had the law, they had the customs of their day. They had the temple, the rabbis, the priests. Yet, they wanted Jesus to teach them to pray. Why? I think that when the disciples saw Jesus pray, it was different, he was different. They wanted to know what he was saying in prayer that caused him to experience the Father in a way that was real and tangible.
Simon Tugwell says when we come to God, it is not to force our moods or our interests onto God, but to receive God's interests and to let God, in a sense, share moods with us...
Is that not prayer? Is it not a time when we become aware that God has approached us. Is not this what caused the disciples to ask Jesus about his prayer? He became different. They wanted to too.
Helen Waddell writes in her introduction to the Desert Fathers, The truth is that to look for the secret of the Desert under any form of words is to lose one's pains. They [desert Abbas and Ammas] are seldom eloquent: but---their every gesture is pregnant.
Pregnant with what? With the power of prayer. Their power came from letting prayer transform them. Even as it transformed Jesus. Even as it transforms you and me.
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