Video Transcript

Edmund: Hey, how do you prepare to jump into a situation that’s completely outside of your control? Like jumping into a body of water? Like a river? I mean, once you get in, you can’t control the water. I mean,it’s kinda the same way with prayer. We can show up to prayer. We can’t control what happens. We can’t control God; we can’t make the Holy Spirit bend to our will. So how do we prepare; how do we cooperate with this uncontrollable current that is the person we meet in prayer? So let’s talk about that.

You know what’s pretty cool? River sports. When I was a youth minister, I would always look forward to our summer camp trip we would take once a year because we would go whitewater rafting. 

And I’ll be honest: the first time I was preparing to do this, I thought it would be pretty boring. I mean, we’d been getting on boats and rafts for thousands of years; how complicated could it really be? But then when I met the river rafting guides I actually started getting hooked. 

So we’d sit through this presentation where they’d go over different techniques for paddling, different ways that they would call out to us; different commands. And these river rafting guides knew the river like the back of their hand. They didn’t just know the river and the different twists and turns, but they also knew what was below the water. And they knew different areas where rocks below the water would cause different dynamics and flow.

And there’s actually a lot of technology that has advanced in terms of river rafting or even kayaking on a river. And understanding these different things; like the flow of the water the day that you’re going to get in, or the weather that day. Understanding how different technologies or equipment respond in different conditions was really fascinating. 

I mean, it’s a simple and very fun idea. You show up at this flowing river and you put something in, you get on top of it, and you start floating. But we all quickly realized if we didn’t pay attention to the instructor—if we weren’t padding properly—our experience of the river was subpar. 

And this actually started making me interested in these guides and how navigating a river is a skill you can acquire and what that would look like at the highest levels. I started getting interested in things like Olympic athletes competing in Canoe Slalom. 

“Feel the risk and try to take him out on shore.”

Like imagine only ever seeing a makeshift wooden boat go down a river and then suddenly seeing this. I mean look at them, just zipping around poles and through gates. Even the materials used have evolved from wood to steel and fiberglass, carbon fiber, and advanced composites; things that make the boats lighter and stronger. And when you watch these competitions, these athletes are incredible. 

Their ability to cooperate with the river; to know the river and different techniques at different moments. And sure, they can’t control the flow, but it’s a beautiful thing to see how they work with the water to accomplish something. 

Remember, prayer is our relationship with God. We can’t control everything. There are definitely things we can control, like showing up to pray regardless of how we feel. And we can choose the methods of prayer we decide to use— like spontaneous prayer, or memorized prayer, or the Liturgy.

But the Catechism also reminds us that it is in our heart that we pray, cooperating with God’s grace. See, because we can control when and how we pray, but we can’t control the movement of the Holy Spirit. But we are also responsible for growing in discipline and learning to be more prepared. And that’s why it’s important to know that the Church offers us what it calls these “wellsprings” of prayer that we can go to.

So it’s kind of like showing up at a river prepared to jump in and cooperate with the flow. It can be tempting to think of prayer in one of two extremes. Either “Everything’s up to me,” or “It’s all up to God, so I shouldn’t even try that much.” 

But the Catechism reminds us in paragraph 2650 “Prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of interior impulse: in order to pray, one must have the will to pray. Nor is it enough to know what the Scriptures reveal about prayer: one must also learn how to pray. Through a living transmission (Sacred Tradition) within “the believing and praying Church,” the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God how to pray.”  

So the Holy Spirit wants to teach us to pray, especially in the context of the Church and within the context of the faith that’s been guarded and passed down to us through the Church.  

The Catechism goes on to say this in 2651: “The tradition of Christian prayer is one of the ways in which the tradition of faith takes shape and grows, especially through the contemplation and study of believers who treasure in their hearts the events and words of the economy of salvation, and through their profound grasp of the spiritual realities they experience.” 

So, the “wellsprings” of prayer that the Church offers us to treasure and study are sacred Scripture, sacred tradition (which you can find summarized in the Catechism), the Liturgy, and even the events of our daily lives. The more we show up at these “wellsprings” and study and treasure them, the more equipped we become to understand and learn from the Holy Spirit in prayer. 

So think of it like stepping into a boat on the river and bringing the right tools and equipment with you, and then being prepared to cooperate with this river.

Two ways that are really helpful for learning how to treasure in our hearts these “wellsprings” of prayer are Lectio Divina and journaling. But doing all of this in a prayerful way. So we don’t just study these things only as an intellectual pursuit; we’re having a conversation with God. 

You see, because prayer isn’t just a dialogue and a relationship between only you and Jesus. We pray within the context of the Body of Christ, the Church. And the Church has these “wellsprings” to prepare us for prayer. So the more we reflect on Scripture and the Catechism, the more we can enter into the Liturgy and notice God in our daily life; the more open we are to cooperating with God’s grace. 

Equipped with these things, we can show up every day to prayer—boat and oar in our hand—ready to jump into this river. And in this way, you’ll be ready to embrace the gift of prayer when the Holy Spirit moves in you.