True Prayer Leads to Action

"Love is found in deeds rather than in words," at least that's what St. Ignatius tells me. St. Gregory the Great seems to agree because he tells me, "The proof of love is in the works: where love exists, it works great things; but when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist."

So then prayer, as an act of our love and devotion to God and to others, is completed in our deeds, not with out words. The sweetest prayer is not the one that says, "Lord, feed your poor," but the one in which food, or clothes, or money, or whatever is needed is given to the poor by another as an act of love.

"Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don't have enough to eat. What good is there in your saying to them, "God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!" - if you don't give them the necessities of life? So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead" (James 2:15-17).

And so too is it with prayer--for what good are you doing if you just walk away saying, "I'll pray for you," but you leave them hungry and cold? Just as faith without works is dead, prayer that does not lead to action is not prayer, but empty words falling on the ground.

When we can learn to pray with our hands, with our time, with our wealth, with our teachings, with our actions and deeds, then we will discover true prayer. The prayer that God sees and hears is "whatever you have done for the least of these." When we pray with our deeds and not with our words, then we shall know that love is what we do, and not always what we feel--though if we make it a habit of doing it more and more, we find that the feeling grows stronger and stronger.

And there we learn what St. Teresa of Avila meant when she said that "The Lord does not look so much on the greatness of our works, but at the love with which they are done."

If there is no love in the deed, perhaps God can not see the work. If our prayers never become more than words, then perhaps God cannot hear them. But if we do love, then we will do, and what we do will be both our work and our prayers--our pleasing sacrifice to our Lord and God.

We are told to do everything in love; therefore, we are told to put everything into action, even our prayers.

Reviews

[Emerald Seas]

Wise words. I'm glad you are here and sharing these posts. Thank you!