I have posted many times before about prayer, from several different angles.
Have you ever thought about who you pray to? I never did, until this past Sunday when the deacon brought it up in his homily.
He started with the usual prelude about praising God, praising Jesus. Getting away from asking for things and simply giving thanks and praise for what you do have and where you are now.
That sort of thing. Yawn...heard it before.
But then he went in a direction that I had never really thought of before and definitely never heard before. I don't remember the details of what he said, which means you as the reader will be extremely lucky because this post is apt to be short because of my lack of memory.
He brought in the concept of prayer to Mary, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, and to God. Not just God. Interesting. I mean, I pray the rosary (being Catholic and all kind of does that to me). But my prayer to Mary consists of a litany of Hail Marys. Nothing more, nothing less...because I figure God is getting the brunt of it.
The deacon introduced the concept of what I comprehend as tiered prayer (maybe I just coined a new phrase???). You pray to the Holy Spirit in order to gain the peace in your day, peace about the things with which you struggle on a daily basis. Things that have become uncontrollable enough to destroy your inner balance.
You pray to Mary for comfort and understanding. Similar to how a child would approach a mother when that child is sad or hurt. If Mary can't resolve it, you and Mary take your issue to Jesus.
You pray to Jesus for guidance in how to follow God's plan. If the 3 of you cannot resolve it at that point, you all proceed to God.
In this sense, prayer can be congregate. In other words, take your concerns to Jesus, to Mary, and if your prayers are not satisfied, together all of you can proceed to the Father for his rendering.
Because, in the end, He is really the only one who knows the grand plan.
My rendering of his homily is very simplistic. And, for non-Catholics, probably somewhat controversial. Hey, at least he didn't throw all of our saints into the prayer pool as well.
In the end, it is just another perspective on prayer. Just something I felt strongly about sharing.
Being a non-Catholic, I have to say that God is the ONLY one who can do anything for you. Jesus is the physical representation of God and the Spirit lives IN us and prays to God for us too. The Bible specifically says to take our petitions to God and HE can and will answer our prayers. Don't want to "step" on toes, but why waste your time praying to Mary when she was human and altough she's one of the saints in Heaven, she can NOT help you on earth - other than a fine example of obedience.
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