“Mom, could I please have just one cookie?” How many mothers have given in to that plea just so that they could get something else done. Well, even a mere cursory reading of today’s scripture reveals the main theme of prayer: persistence, sticking to it relentlessly beating down God’s door to gain access to him and to his power.

We hear so often about the need to pray. After all, isn’t that what we are supposed to do when we come to church... pray? But, in the realm of prayer we may feel so inadequate. After all, we read about the great saints who were, so-to-speak, experts in prayer. We may get discouraged believing that we could never be like them. Well probably most of us aren’t going to be like them. But that is a frustrating type of comparison. It would be like comparing my golf skills to Tiger Woods. There is no comparison.

When we read about prayer or if we have tried to learn how to pray, we may have read many different books. In them, we are urged to climb seven-storey mountain, to wander through interior castle rooms. We have been led through the dark night of the soul, to fight our psychic demons. We may have felt lost in intricate mazes that are supposed to lead us to God’s center. We have knelt, stood, sat, lain, inhaled, exhaled and lotused. I am sure that’s enough.

Then, we have the excuses why we don’t pray. Some say they are too sick, but isn’t God interested in sick people? Some are bored with God and look for something more exciting. Then, there is the excuse: “I’m too busy to pray.” That excuse works only when we are too busy to eat, sleep, work, shop, play or watch tv. Then, there is the basic excuse: I just don’t feel like praying. That’s a strange excuse. Prayer is not about us. Prayer is about God.

In prayer, our current obsessions can hinder us: technique, communication and the exotic. If there are techniques for success, we sometimes believe that there is a magic technique for prayer. In communication, we believe that talking cures everything. Then, in life, especially in movies, we can easily be so enthralled by the exotic, that we can be mesmerized by the rituals that surround us in church.

An awareness of God constitutes the core of prayer. We need to spend less time analyzing prayer and more time to engage in prayer. Prayer is not performance. In prayer we relate with God and place ourselves in God’s presence. Prayer happens when we are not absorbed by the world, but rather absorbed by the God who created the world.

We pray when we take seriously the words of Jesus: “Take up my cross and follow me.” The cross is not just at special moments. We take up the cross each day knowing that the time God gives us will bring us to eternity.

A young girl had broken her leg badly and was in traction. She asked the doctor how long she had to be in traction. The doctor’s response was simple and illustrates our approach to prayer and life. His wise answer: “one day at a time.”

In prayer and in taking up the cross, we do make mistakes and we do fall and fail. A young boy was asked: “How did you learn to ice-skate so well?” The boy replied: “I just kept getting up when I fell and tried again.”

So, too, in prayer, in living the cross, in living life, we keep getting up and trying again.

Prayer is powerful; life is powerful. Get up every day, persevere every day. We live relentlessly. So, too, we should pray relentlessly.