When we gather to pray, we join countless believers through the centuries who have also turned to God. Among them are the men and women in the opening chapter of Acts: Peter and John, James and Andrew, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. As Scripture says, “All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer” — just as we do today.

In John’s 17th chapter we come across what many have identified as the wellspring of Christian prayer, its deepest and inexhaustible font. That source reveals itself as we listen to what is going on within Jesus as he prays. (These verses have been aptly called “the Priestly Prayer of Jesus.”)

First off, we hear Him speaking with his beloved Father: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you and give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”  That word “all” in the sentence refers, of course, to you and me.

Jesus continues: “I pray for these ones you have given me – because they are yours — and everything of mine is Yours, and everything of Yours in mine. These words you gave me, Father, I have given to them…Now I pray for them.”

What we are doing is listening in to this intimate 3-way conversation, a collaboration better described as an interchange at the very core of reality – that between the Father, his Son Jesus, and of each one of us. To pray is to be taken up into this grace-filled convergence, this give-and-take within the Trinity that sparks all of life. This is the vitality forever coming to us from the Father, through the Son, and carried to us in their Holy Spirit.

This understanding of prayer may sound abstract, almost like a theology lesson. But at its heart, prayer—especially in the Eucharist—is our entry into the conversation within God, a communion that began before time. You and I are invited into this intimacy, this exchange between the Father and the Son. In praying, we are drawn into this mystery, into the very spark of life.

With this as background and framework, we can reflect on the praying that all of us do. Certainly, in our responses at Mass, but also in those many words and sentiments arising in our hearts at any time. In both these instances, we are being drawn into the eternal exchange of life and love that is always happening within God.

So, let’s listen in again on Jesus’ conversation with his Father – and for sure their conversation with every one of us here.

Jesus’ words: “My Father, now these believers know that everything you gave me is from You. And the words you gave me, I have given to them. I pray for them because they are yours and everything of yours is mine. “

Whenever we pray, we enter into this ongoing dynamic of shared life and love within God, the very life and love Jesus is offering us at every moment of our lives.

When instructing his priests in sermon preparation, Vincent singles out prayer as the underlying source of any message they will proclaim.

“Prayer is the great book for a preacher; in Prayer you will learn those divine truths in the Eternal Word, who is their source, and you in turn will pour them forth upon his people. It is to be desired that all missionaries should greatly love this virtue; for without it they will be of little or no value, and with its help they will certainly touch hearts. I beseech God to give us the spirit of Prayer.

(Volume: 7 | Page#: 171) To Antoine Durand, Superior (in Agde), around May 1658 added on 6/28/2011