Those that occasionally read this blog – and there are at least two of us – know that for the last several weeks I have been pondering the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus’ response to the disciples when they asked him to teach them to pray. As I pondered, it occurred to me, almost like noticing the sky and wondering why I had never noticed it before, that Jesus didn’t just teach the disciples this prayer, he probably prayed it himself. More than that, he lived it.

We can see this distinctly as we think about the events of Holy Week. The one who said, “When you pray, say: Father… your kingdom come, your will be done,” prayed in the garden, “Father, not my will but yours be done.” He said for us to ask for our daily bread and as he sat with his friends, he took the bread, blessed, broke, and gave it. In the prayer he teaches us to pray for forgiveness with the realization that our being forgiven is woven together with our willingness to forgive. Then, on the cross, he prays, “Father forgive them.” In other words, Jesus didn’t just say prayers, his life was a prayer.

That is our calling as well. Henri Nouwen, in The Living Reminder, said that we are called to, “A way of being, which embraces the totality of life: working and resting, eating and drinking, praying and playing, acting and waiting.” Obviously prayer is far more than a prayer time, no matter how many prayer times we may observe during the day. Prayer is a lifestyle, a stance, a turning toward God, an awareness, it is our life. It is not so much something we do as it is what we are.

Sometimes I get this. Sometimes it is so clear. Sometimes my hearing, my seeing, my speaking, my doing, my breathing, my heartbeat are all one and present to the Lord. Sometimes.

I know I am dancing all around it. I feel like I am trying to explain the sky in three hundred words or less and words are failing. But, I’ll try again,. I think prayer is a calling; a deep, primal, real calling to a life that is awake to the truth that all we do and all we are is our prayer.

Let it be.