Constant Communication

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists, was known to tell people: Pray always, and if you cannot pray, pray that you can pray. He understood that prayer is an essential part of Christian life. This ongoing communication with the Divine gives us the opportunity to express our needs, wants, desires, hopes, thanksgivings, fears, love, and admiration to God. It also illuminates the path in our spiritual walk to help us continue to follow the will of God. Prayer keeps our relationship with God alive. Consider other relationships in your life. What would happen if you never communicated with or spent time with those individuals? They might still love you, but without regular contact, the relationship would weaken. The same is true in our relationship with God. Although God loves us unconditionally and endlessly and that love never weakens, without prayer, our relationship with God becomes diluted. God knows us better than we know ourselves. However, when we express the longings of our heart to God, we foster our relationship with God. Ultimately, we express our faith and trust in God. And what is more, God answers all our prayers—regardless of whether we get the answers we want or expect. Communication through prayer allows us to continue in a committed relationship and to understand how God provides what is best for us. It may take time to develop this understanding, but we can’t hope to know what God asks of us if we are not talking with him.

And so, everything we do should start and end with prayer. We want God to be so active in our lives that we don’t do anything without opening ourselves to God. This will increase our ability to act in virtue and love, avoid sin, and minister with God’s people in a way that will bear fruit. To fully commit to doing the will of God and serving the Lord and our neighbors in a manner that is pleasing to him, we need to be in constant communication—continually building our relationship with God. God’s love calls for us to express all that is in our heart, minds, and lives—nothing is too small or too big to discuss with God. God wants to be part of everything we do. Saint Alphonsus was convinced that if we pray often, our souls will certainly be saved because we will have such a strong relationship with God that our deepest desire will be to serve and be with the Lord.