Prayer

Last week I had the honor of sponsoring my nephew for his Catholic Confirmation. At the end of the ceremony, the Bishop asked the confirmants "What is prayer?" and I thought "What an interesting question!".

Regardless of how you feel about prayer, I think most everyone does it in one form or another. There are of course the many religions that practice it, and you can also say it's evident in 'non-religions' too: meditation, yoga, walking in the woods, etc.

When no one offered the Bishop an answer to his question, he gave his. He said that, to him, it's a conversation. That means you pray but you also listen. He was making the point that it's a two-way street, that you have to be ready and able to hear a response.

How many times have you received an answer to a 'prayer'? How many times have you paid attention to the answer?