Sermon

Sermon – Leila Noone

Throughout the course of our human lives, we encounter many different people from many different places. There are those who enter into our lives in passing, those whose memories linger long after they leave us, and those whose influence seems stay with us forever. We are inspired by so many different people; by movie stars and models and politicians and revolutionaries and athletes and intellectuals. We measure success and progress in so many different ways, according to so many different standards. Then, suddenly, we realize that we have been swept away by the rush of life.

We often forget that the most profound and inspiring things are often the messages that are right under our noses, that we need look no further than the little things that people in our own personal lives say to us as wellsprings of inspiration.  

My grandmother was a beautiful writer. Whenever she would give us grandchildren birthday cards or little notes or random letters, she would always sign them “don’t forget to say your prayers.” Even after she had passed away, we would find little notes and letters that she wrote, all ending with this simple reminder about the importance of prayer. I used to read them and think to myself “oh Nuna, you are so cute,” never fully realizing how profound this simple statement was, how truly powerful prayer can be. “Don’t forget to say your prayers.”

In today’s gospel, Jesus extricates a demon from a possessed boy. When his disciples ask him why they were not able to perform such a feat, He responds "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." He reminds us that “All things are possible to him who believes."

 Belief and prayer go hand in hand. When we pray, we are aligning our thoughts with something that we believe in, directing them towards a goal. Prayer, in essence, is a meditation driven by a belief in things-not-seen.

An Orthodox Monk described prayer in the following way:

 "The prayer of simplicity consists of placing yourself in the presence of God and maintaining yourself in His presence for a certain time, in an interior silence which is as complete as possible, while you concentrate on the divine Object, reduce to unity the multiplicity of your thoughts and feelings, and endeavor to 'keep yourself quiet' without words or arguments. It is not difficult...it is marvelously fruitful. It is like a welcome shower of rain falling on the garden of the soul. It gives a most powerful assistance to the efforts which we make in order to avoid sin and to accomplish the divine will."

Prayer and belief go hand in hand. My grandmother realized this when she signed each of her letters “don’t forget to say your prayers.” She in turn passed this message on to her own children. When my brother and I were growing up, my own mother told us never to get her presents during the holidays or for her birthday. Instead, she would ask us to write to her. One birthday, she had us write down our short term and long term goals and where we saw ourselves in 10 years. Today, I see my brother living out that same life path he had written down all those years ago, accomplishing the very things he wrote down on paper both academically and athletically at his university in California. Just as the act of prayer is precluded by the act of believing, so the act of describing precludes the act of creating. We can literally create ourselves into whatever we want to be simply by aligning our thoughts according to a predetermined goal. By praying about that which we believe, we can create our very own live paths and actualize the principles that God wishes us to live by. 

So I’d say the advice that my grandmother gave to me is worth internalizing. Forget your keys. Forget to eat. Forget your schedule. Forget the groceries. Forget your homework. Forget your bad days. Forget your good days. But don’t forget to say your prayers.