Love and Action Through Prayer

What is prayer? How do we define it? If we look at the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, one of it’s definitions for prayer is a solemn request to God or any symbol of worship. That, in itself is very broad. How do you communicate a request to God? Verbally? Written? There are so many ways to pray.

Silence can be a form of prayer when there is communication with both man and God. Even though both parties do not talk, there is a profound form of communication that takes place. We always look at prayer as a form of verbal or written communication. That is only two forms of prayer.

When we go for Mass, we pray. When we sing praises to God during our Praise and Worship, our prayer is two times more powerful, as Saint Augustine would put it. He says that when we sing, we pray twice and the angels of heaven would stop their singing and praising so that they can hear us sing.

When we are in communion with one another, that is also a form of prayer. Thus, as long as the act that we carry out gives praise and glory to God, it is prayer. But how does prayer lead us to love?

When we pray, we normally pray for others, we seldom just pray for ourselves. When we want to love someone, we normally want to give them what we want best for them. Hence we pray for our loved ones. That is how we express our love for one another. Even Jesus, God and yet human, endured so much suffering for the sake of his beloved people, still prays for people who rejected him.

It is very difficult to love; there is no doubt about that. How the world sees love is different from how Christians see love. Our love is the love of Christ, not the lustful love the world knows and teaches.

In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, love is mentioned as “a mutual communication between the two persons. That is, the one who loves gives and communicates to the beloved what he or she has, or a part of what one has or can have; and the beloved in return does the same to the lover. Thus if the one has knowledge, one gives it to the other who does not; and similarly in regard to honours or riches. Each shares with the other” (Ex 231)

We can see from the quote above that love is not only a thought but also action. It is further mentioned that “love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than words” (Ex 230). This further emphasises that love is most effective conveyed through action. But love can be very demanding. It demands our whole being to be able to love unconditionally and without reservation and the cost. Christ taught us that the greatest commandment is to love one another as He has loved us. Again, we can see that it is the act of love that He is emphasising on, not mere words. Anybody can talk about love, but how many are actually doing it? Love without action is empty.

How do we show our love? If you ask someone who is very worldly, he’ll probably tell you to have sex; such is how love is perceived in the world today. The form of love that we should show is totally different from what the world teaches. In the Bible, it is stated that the greatest love that a man can show for his fellow man is to die for him. And Jesus did just that, He died for us all so that our sins may be forgiven. He ransomed His live for many, and that is the kind of love we are called to show.

Serving one another is one of the simplest ways to show our love. It does not even have to be big things. Giving a hug, giving a smile, a simple hello or how are you….simple things that do not cost anything at all. Sending occasional emails and sms during special occasion, cheering a friend up. The choices are limitless. The only thing is whether we care enough to do it or not. And love definitely requires strength and perseverance to do it. Even Jesus had to pray everyday to His Father for grace and strength. If Jesus, who is God needs to pray, how much more we, weak as we are, needs to pray.

Without prayer, we are nothing. Our love would be empty expressions of what we perceive as Christ’s love. Without prayer, our action would just be that of any paid social worker in the welfare department. Thus, if we want to love, we need to pray. Pray for grace to love unconditionally, no matter who we come across, even if we hate that person, if we pray for the grace and strength to love like Jesus did, God will grant us that grace. For where love is, God is. We must not be afraid to love or be ashamed to show our love for one another.

When we have the grace and strength to love, we can then share it with others through our action. A very good example would be Blessed Theresa of Calcutta. Before she answered her call within a call, she was afraid and unsure of her second calling. And she prayed, she prayed for grace and strength and conviction to answer her call. Throughout her years serving the poorest of the poor, she never ceased to pray. Many people who have died in her arms said that they have never experienced so much love in their life.

There are many other countless examples, some of it includes St. Francis of Assisi, St Clare and many others. All of them shared their love by doing something, not just talking but acting it out with the grace obtained from prayer. So it is with us, if we want to love and show it through our action, we must pray.

Another example would be this: if we see a friend in sickness and we want to show our love for him, what would we do? Do we say “I’ll pray for you”? Will that show our love for him? Of course not, anybody can say “I’ll pray for you” We show our love by being there with him, taking care of him, helping him eat and so forth. It is our action which will show our love for him, not words. Anybody can talk.

So prayer is very important. Without prayer, we will not have the courage, grace and strength to love. And without love, we cannot serve one another genuinely through our action. You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving.