Stairway to the Throne - Two

For the lay person, reading St. Teresa's instruction on prayer may prove intimidating and far beyond their reach. Here are a few points to keep in mind. The initial audience for St. Teresa's writings are cloistered nuns, living in the convent, who have prayer as a central feature of their religious life, and she is writing in the 16th. century, and her style of writing is unequally hers. 

For the lay person in this century, their approach to the ascetical aspect of their prayer, (the way they strive to reach out to God in prayer) may be adapted to better address their contemporary circumstances. However, the character of their praying, that is their devotion to prayer, remains essentially the same. In Lk. 11:8 Jesus uses the example of the man begging for bread at his friends door in the middle of the night; "I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs." Perseverance in one's seeking, knocking, asking is the real character found at the heart of the true ascetical approach to prayer.

As for the mystical side to one's experience of prayer, this is God's to give, not our's to achieve. Vs. 9 concludes; 

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

In evaluating our prayer experience, our first question to ask: am I truly seeking the Lord, and with perseverance? This is the part that I have control over. Other considerations such as where, when, passages of scripture I select for prayer etc., will naturally follow. In order to have discernment, there must first be prayer to discern. Even prayer that seems dry and without any experience, opens the door to discernment with the question "why", why is my prayer this way? Is it something I must change? Is it the Lord testing my heart to see if my desire to experience the Lord is a true desire, that I will not give up?