Murals (2008) by PHANTAST - Graffiti - Cultural Music & Art Association inc. - 98 Milne St. Benleigh
UNCEASINGLY PRAYER.
Bartimaeus found himself landed by the side of the road, hopelessly blind, having lost all faith and all hope in human help, and reduced to beg for his living.
And one day he heard a crowd that passed by. "Who is it what passes by?' and he was told "Jesus of Nazareth"! A few more paces and He had gone and would probably never pass him again. Out of this desperate hope he began to cry and shout 'Jesus, son of david, have mercy on me'. There is a degree of despair that is linked with total, perfect hope.
Turmoil.
He cried, but everyone around tried to silence him. In spite of all these people who wanted to shout him down, he insisted because it mattered so much to him.
There was a saint of Greece called Maxim, a young man, who went to church one day and heard the reading of the Epistle in which it says that we should pray inceasingly. He walked out of the church, went into the neighbouring mountains and set out to pray unceasingly. Being a Greek peasant of the 4th century, he knew the Lord's Prayer and some other prayers. So he prceeded to recite them, again and again and again. The sun began to go down, it became colder and darker and he began to hear all sorts of worrying sounds and to see the flashing eyes of wild beasts. He no longer continued saying the Lord's Prayer and the Creed; he did exactly what Bartimaeus did, he began to shout "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me"! Gradually he become accustomed to all these noises and dangers of the day and night; but then temptations of the flesh, temptations of the mind and emotions came upon him and there was no moment day and night when he did not shout Godwards :"Have mercy, have mercy, help, help"!
Then one day, after 14 years, the Lord appeared to him; and the moment Lord appeared, stillness, peace, serenity came on him.
Maxim learnt to pray not in spite of the turmoil, but because of the turmoil.
When we know nothing about prayer, when we have not prayed at all in our lives or not enough, how can we learn to pray in the conditions of life in which we live? It does work if you are simple enough to do it:
- awake up in the morning and thank God for the day, 'let us rejoice and be grateful in it'.
- get up, wash, clean... and come to God again with the conviction that you are God's own and that this day is also God's own.
- ask God to bless this day, everything in it should be ruled by Him.
- you walk in this day as God's own messenger, the presence of Christ and Gospel - God never said that you walk into a situation in His name, He will be crucified and you will be the risen one Be prepared to walk in humiliation and humility, in truth and ready to be persecuted.
If you accept that this day was blessed of God, then every person is a gift of God, every circumstance is a gift of God; you can make prayer and life really like two sides of one coin; you act and pray in one breath.
You cannot, having never prayed before, start with 18 hours of dialogue and prayer with God continuously, but you can single one or two moments and put all your energy into them. Turn your eyes Godwards, smile at Him and go into it. You are not capable of bearing God's company all the time. Say for a moment "I'll have a rest. For a moment I accept to be less saintly". If we try to pray continuously, we will be defrated quite soon; but if we choose moments inteligently we can do it (School of Prayer, Anthony Bloom, bishop and surgeon).