First Principle

Why Am I Praying?

So far, in these notes on prayer, we have looked at three subjects:

1. Prayer, Hearing Is Believing
2. A Place To Pray
3. In His Presence

These subjects are part of the new series, on the New Evangelization.

Saint Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercise, begins by having the person, praying the Exercises, look carefully at the fundamental reason upon which the whole of the Exercises rests. Why am I praying in the first place; indeed, why am I here in this world? He calls it, The PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION.

In Mark's gospel, we have an account of this very question being put to Jesus. It is framed in the form of a question about the Commandments. 

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,

“Which is the first of all the commandments?”

Jesus replied, “The first is this:

Hear, O Israel!

The Lord our God is Lord alone!

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, with all your mind,

and with all your strength.

The second is this:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

Mk 12:28-34

Every structure is only as good as the foundation upon which it rests. For a journey to end successfully, it must fix its compass, at the outset, on the destination to be reached.   

Consider these parables spoken by Jesus.

I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the flood-waters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn't obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.” Lk 6:46

 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. He will first sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough money to finish it, won’t he? Otherwise, if he lays a foundation and can’t finish the building, everyone who watches will begin to ridicule him and say, ‘This person started a building but couldn't finish it.’ Lk. 14:28

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me continuously. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it, because what profit will a person have if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life? Mtt. 16:24

The corner stone is the most important building block of any structure because of it's perfect shape; and the direction in which it is placed will be used to calculate and set in place every stone to follow. All too often, people loose their way in their lives, because they have no clear direction for their lives. They well may ask the question, "why am I here", but do not have a clear answer to this all important question.

We are in this world by design. Our existence is not merely some happenstance of nature, we are here because the Designer of this universe placed us here. Our purpose is the one He gives us. Therefore, it is true to say, our lives are not really our own to do with as we will, they are to do His will. Since we did not create this world, nor create our selves in this time and place, it makes perfect sense that we should seek to discover who did, and why.

This being true, the decisions I make  in life must be evaluated, measured up to, the cornerstone principle of my life. How do I know if my life is on the straight and true, I draw a plum-line back to my cornerstone principle to see if it lines up. Then I make corrections as indicated. This is called discernment.

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PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION - St. Ignatius

Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.

And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.

From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it.

For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19