Dear Theophilus, 

As I have mentioned many times before, we can discuss issues and explore various aspects of prayer but until we start to pray, we cannot really say that we have a spiritual life. So, let us now take a look at a proposal at how we could organize our daily prayers.

When we rise, it doesn't take much effort to start with one of the shortest prayers - cross yourself. In this process there is much that resonates within Christian spirituality. We use the body because we do something physical. At the same time we make some of the profoundest statements of our faith. The thumb and the first two fingers represent the Trinity; the two fingers folded into the palm represent the dual nature of Christ. The cross reminds us of God's love for us through the sacrifice offered by Christ. Crossing ourselves, as well, brings God into our consciousness which is what we try to do during the duration of the whole day.

Next, we say morning prayers, given in a variety of prayer books. This will take approximately fifteen minutes. An important thing here is that, as you read or recite these prayers, you are attentive to the words you are saying. It is easy for the mind to wander. If it does, just bring it back to the words of the prayers.

It has often been suggested that Scriptural readings be carried out in the morning. There is an obvious reason for this. We can, during the course of the day, come back to items that we have read and meditate on them and apply them as we go about our day's business. Good as this is, there are practical problems. Time limitation is one of these. To do readings, involves reading anywhere from ten to fourteen pages a day and in the morning this is difficult to do given today's pace of life. I find that evening readings much easier to carry out and this is what I do. I will comment on the details of this later on.

It is be good to end our prayer by staying in the presence of God silently to try to discern what He may be saying to us. This is difficult, and often seems pointless, but, if we persist, with time, we will attain bounty from this practice. Normally, we could start with five minutes and adjust this to our individual needs.

We have started our day with prayer and now we go into the tasks of the day. It is helpful during the course of the day to reflect in a very brief manner on the significance of the hours of the day. A tradition has grown up around these hours and I would like to remind you of them. Six o'clock in the morning (referred to as the first hour) is early dawn. We should be reminded of God's creative act in making this world of ours. What we particularly notice is the coming of the light as the sun rises. This should remind us of Christ who is the light of the world and who enlightens our lives by bringing meaning to them. Nine o'clock, the third hour, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. This again reminds us that God is around us, in the world, and He is also in us and He is continually as close to us as we are to ourselves. Noon, the sixth hour, reminds us of Christ's crucifixion. We should remind ourselves of God's cost in order to redeem us. The hour of midnight, before we go to sleep is reminiscent of the death that we will all experience. If we get into this habit of remembering the hours, we will see that this is an excellent way to remind ourselves of our relationship with God.
Another practice that we may carry out during the course of day is to offer a one or two sentence prayer before we start on any task whether it is to drive somewhere or undertake a meeting or anything else. Again, the point of this exercise is make God more present in our daily lives.

Another important place for exercising the presence of God is saying a prayer before every meal. Food is such a fundamental necessity for us that it is crucial for us to remind ourselves where food originates - with God's providential care for the earth.

Knowing of God is very different from knowing God. A lot of us have experience in knowing of God where we discuss or think about the existence of God, His properties and so on. Knowing God is very different from this and what these brief remembrances that I have mentioned, aim at, is to build up the consciousness of God's presence and thereby enable us to taste and experience God more than we normally do. I think that one of the most serious hindrances to prayer and a spiritual life, in general, is something that has crept into Christianity from a philosopher called Kant. Through him, the idea became ingrained that somehow God is 'unattainable'. He is so distant that we cannot really get to know Him. Christian spirituality holds a position that goes contrary to this. There is a limit as to how much we may know of God, but there is no limit to knowing God and the whole point of prayer and other spiritual exercises is to enable us to 'taste' God in a very intimate and personal way.

Just as we started the day with prayer, we also end it with prayer, but, this time, more extensively. In our evening prayers, again taken from a good prayer book, we end the day and prepare for sleep, a metaphor for death. First, of all, we have completed another day of our lives. We bring thanks for all the gifts that have crossed our paths during the course of this day.
We should review the day. Go over the events that need improving, where we have sinned and confess our sins before God. There is nothing that tends to keep us separated from God more than hidden sins. Bring them up before God. We have a mistaken idea that it is sins that keep us from God whereas, in a sense, it is sins that bring us to God. There is a pungent answer given by Christ to the pharisees in that Christ has come to the sinners. A sinner who is aware of his sins is also aware that he is a person in need and will look for forgiveness whereas sins that remain hidden do not bring anything positive and simply are there to spiritually eat away at us.

After this, one reads scripture. Remember that the Bible is a unit and it is just as important to read from the Old Testament as from the New Testament. I find that one of the best ways to deal with this is to divide the Bible into seven sections of approximately the same length in terms of pages. And each day, read a couple of pages from each section, and in this manner you will go through the whole Bible in a relatively short time and at the same time, you will start to see the unity of the Bible. You're going to find some of the readings, particularly in the Old Testament difficult and questions will arise as to why you are reading this material at all. Stay with it. There is wisdom hidden in these sections and what it requires in order to be made available to you is persistence, patience and faith. Don't be afraid to underline or highlight sections that are meaningful to you. At some point you may wish to memorize some of these, but this is a matter for the future.

After you have done this, your prayers should, again, include a silent waiting on God. We generally think of prayer as our offering of words to God. But, remember, prayer is to be a dialogue and not a monologue and it is important to give the other side, God, to speak. In order to do this we need silence. This silence is not just a matter of wasting time. This silence is crucial for the dialogue of prayer. Silence here can be likened to pauses or rhythm in music. It gives form and meaning and significance.

If I may be allowed a little bit of a diversion, I would like to draw your attention to a modern play called Waiting for Godot by Becket. Just from the title, one suspects what the play is about because the name Godot already suggests God. Two characters await God but as they wait they chatter away and the opportunity to meet God passes. It is the same with us. We must have silences in order to meet God.

How do we practise this silence? This is not an easy matter because, in a sense, we have to completely change our attitude. During the day we speak, we are very active, we voice our opinions and so on. Suddenly, we are faced with the situation where we are to be silent. But this silence, especially because it is so rare in our lives, is so important for our spiritual well-bring.

It is difficult to be completely silent because thoughts will immediately flit across our minds and will distract us. One way of combatting this is by using a very short repetitive prayer, such as the Jesus Prayer, to help us focus our minds on God and on His presence there. We may wish to keep our eyes closed or we may open them. If we do the latter, a possibly useful way of praying this silence is to have an icon in front of us so as to, again, focus our attention on God. The time that we spend on this waiting on God can vary, but I would say, to start ten minutes would be good.

What I have written to you, Theophilus, is an outline of something that I find useful and helpful. I suggest it to you as a beginning framework for you, but you may wish to modify certain parts of my suggestion. However, there are certain things that I want to emphasize to you. You must begin praying and stay with it. Try to be regular in terms of time and location of your prayers. There are additional factors that will help you in your spiritual journey and I will turn to them in the next letter.

Meanwhile, I remain,
Yours truly,

Bar-Abbas