“Lord, teach us to pray”

“Lord, teach us to pray”

                                                        (Luke 11,1)                         - Hoang Vinh Son-

       In our lives, we have many ways to pray, encounter, talk with God. If we really want to be closer and intimate with God, we will choose the best way to see Him. Father Hoang Vinh Son who is a priest of  Congregation of Christi Vitalitas  ( CV),  chose to write the letter to pray. He wrote with all his feelings like a son writes  to a daddy. He also helped us confide impasses ours to God.

      “Lord, teach us to pray” has nine letters with many different questions about how to pray, liturgy in the Church, saints, faith, catechism… sometimes, there was only a question, but the author had to write two or three letters to God, but they all focused on prayer. Morever, this book has nice letters that God replied questions, too. God tried to answer as soon as possible and looked forward to see the letters. He always wanted to know what happened with us, what we are thinking, worried…because He wanted to share and empathize with us.

The author asked God many questions but there were seven main questions:

1.      How to pray because he was thinking a lot, especially his prayer life. Sometimes, he didn’t want to pray and go to the church anymore because he did not feel peaceful in his heart.

2.      When he went to the church, there were many rites that he did not know the meaning and pray as a machine and some people asked why we have to stand, kneel, sit….

3.      In the church, we often opened music loudly every morning, so it bothered some people because there were some non catholic there and they complained about that, so what is mean of opening music every morning?

4.      Now in our Church, there are many Saints, so we often prayed with Saints and sometimes we forgot God, so does God want us to pray with Saints? If yes, how to pray?

5.      Many people went to the church and pray, but in their lives they often backbited others, said bad things, did some thing wrong and didn’t witness about God in their lives. He thought that some non catholic lived better than us although they did not pray, went to church, did not study about catechism, so is it necessary to be a catholic?

6.      Nowaday, there are many temptation around us, so what should we do to keep our faith and overcome those temptation?

7.      Many youth did not want to study catechism or read Holy Bible anymore. They said that they feel so bored to study catechism and Holy Bible, so what should we do to help them feel interesting?

Actually, the author borrowed image and word of God to answer his questions to make us satisfied with our questions in our lives. God didn’t require us do like this or do like that, have to  keep laws of God as a machine. He dint force us go to church, force us stand or kneel, force us pray or study catechism, we are free to do. He only invited us to come to Him, not force. If we didn’t want to pray, go to church…God never punished us, but He was always there to wait, keep, protect and bless us and would not leave us alone in this life.

When we were sad, disappointed and didn’t want to pray or go to church anymore, but we did not know that God was calling us come to Him and He would willingly listen, share and give us peace, consolation, happiness. He needed our faith and desisred us to trust in Him because when we believe, He just can act in us. He knew what we wanted to say, but He wanted us to tell Him by themselves and wanted to see our desire want to encounter God, want to share, want to find peace and consolation. He also wanted us to let Him “make friend”, give us some advices and beside us, not reject or ignore Him when we had problem. Therefore, every morning the invitation of God had to be loudly to call us come to Him, God wanted to see us, so He woke up us by noise of music and through the rites of the Church we could live harmony and intimately with God, experience the passion, the death, the sacrifice and the love God gave us. Through Saints, he wanted us to learn their virtues and to be like them to be closer with God because they lived and sacrificed their life for God. He did not ban us pray with Saints, but He wanted us to be like them and become good and holy man. To have good life, we – chistian- have to pray, study catechism, read Bible, go to church because only that we just can understand and know God. He taugh and guide us through prayer, catechism, Bilbe and He gave us His grace and His love through Mass. Therefore, He did not want us to give up or forget prayer, reading Bible, participate Mass everyday. In this life, there were many temptations and we were easy to commit sin, to fall down and He knew about that, so we have to come with Him, He will give us strength and necessary things to overcome temptations. He always companioned and shared ours difficulties. He promised that He will never leave us alone, so if we had mistake, He was still beside and keep us.

           Through this book, I can see my image in questions of the author. When I became a Christian until now, I had asked God many stupid questions or sometimes I didn’t know why asked like that. Perhaps, my faith and my prayer life was not strong enough, I did not believe completely and offer my life  for God. I have not studied seriously catechism, the rites of the Church, often read Bible and desired encounter God when I participated Mass. Sometimes, I only knew to pray a lot, but did not concentrate to listen and experience the presence of God and I did as a machine. However, I learned a important things in this book is let “ask and write letter” very day to God. That is the best way to encounter and know God’s will in my life and especially live intimately with God.