6. “But when thou prayest, go into thy room, and closing thy door, pray to thy Father in secret;” (Mt 6:6a).
While we cannot always physically enter a private room to pray, we can always enter our hearts and privately meet the Lord there. To do this we must first enter that interior space, then shut the door of our intellect to our myriad preoccupations, and recall the secret Presence of our Heavenly Father. We must learn to love silence; otherwise the door will be open and distractions will rush in to invade our private prayer. St. Ignatius used to counsel his Jesuit brothers to begin their daily examen by taking a moment to become aware of the Father’s personal Love for them. This is very important; otherwise we will be tempted to try to earn His Love by reminding Him of our various accomplishments or the prayers we have prayed, etc. We cannot earn His Love; it is a Gift. Awareness of the Father is the beginning of prayer. We are sons in the Son. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father’” (Gal 4:6).
