Our Trinitarian Prayer Life

Friends in Christ,

Today Our Lord tells us that we must build our ‘house,’ on a firm foundation, otherwise it will be swept away by storms.

We can consider, in our spiritual life, or we might speak about our prayer life – is it built on a firm foundation? We are not speaking today about our norms of piety, which are part of the needed foundation – of a morning offering, examination of conscience before bed, meal prayers, time for mental prayer or meditation, spiritual reading, bible reading – we are not today speaking of this foundation, which is very important – But we can ask, is my prayer life Trinitarian?

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We should have a relationship with each of the 3 Divine Persons. This is the foundation that we want: Prayers or aspirations each day to God our Father. Speaking daily to God the Son, to Jesus, as our Savior, our brother, our intercessor, our friend. And – speaking to the Holy Spirit, asking his help, his power. A solid foundation for our spiritual life means relating to each of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

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Of course we gravitate to, or feel closer to, one of the Divine Persons. We may speak more often with Jesus during the course of the day, or meditate on his life in the Holy Gospels, and this would be very appropriate. Some call often on the Holy Spirit for his guidance and help, for outpourings of his Gifts. And as children of God, with a true sense of ourself as a son or daughter of God, we may often speak to our heavenly Father, and praise him, with an awareness of his watchful eye during our work.

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Earlier in my own life, I was not paying attention to this, but a good priest reminded me, to have a Trinitarian prayer life. This always strikes me very close to my heart when we recite the prayers for people who are near death. One is reminded of each of the Divine Persons: as the person is dying, the prayer is: ‘Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God the almighty Father, who created you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who suffered for you; in the name of the Holy Spirit, who was poured out upon you. Go forth, faithful Christian!

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God the Father, Jesus, God the Holy Spirit – however we pray and speak with God, each day should find us relating to each of these dear, Divine Persons. And Mary should be with us too.

In this way, we will have built our spiritual life on a solid foundation, that will help us withstand the storms of life.