Go Up and Pray

Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. // Luke 6:12

I fall in and out of the habit of intentionally waking up to pray before the rest of the household is awake. As a mother and a wife, I know my prayer can also be active through the work of my hands when I’m unable to enter into a quieter form of prayer.

Washing dishes, folding laundry, packing lunches, preparing dinner, braiding hair, sweeping the floors, and reuniting tiny lego pieces that belong to a masterpiece that has since been disassembled are forms of prayer that I can offer up.

These forms of prayer are good and worthy, but for me personally, what is most fruitful is when I enter into silence.

“Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12).

When I step away from my routine of chores and only focus on Jesus, I feel renewed. Even when the environment I return to is a controlled mess, the time I spend in quiet prayer fills me with calm and joy.

In today’s Gospel we read that before choosing His disciples, Jesus spends time in prayer.

The King of Kings could have very well chosen to be fed grapes, have servants fan Him, demand someone else to name the apostles, and yet He goes up the mountain to pray.

I, too, have to get out of my routine and go pray. I have to enter into the chamber of my heart that is only reserved for Jesus and me—a place of intimacy that I don’t draw from often enough because I convince myself that active prayer is sufficient. I can only be strengthened by Him in my vocation when I am listening for Him. The silence draws me to Him in a way that my active prayer doesn’t.

Sister, the work you do with your hands is a good prayer to offer to the Lord. Sometimes we need more than that though.

Today, take some time to enter into silent prayer. If it's something you haven’t done before, ask Jesus to show you how.

Enter into silent prayer. // Mytae Carrasco WallaceClick to tweet

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