The First Pillar of the Dominican life is Prayer, with a capital P, just as it is the First Pillar of any Christian life. As a Lay Dominican I will be expected to pray the principle hours of the Divine Office each day, and also the Rosary, and to attend Mass as often as I can, and this in addition to other forms of prayer on a more ad hoc basis. That’s a lot, and it helps that I haven’t really watched TV in years.

Prayer is not, despite the common misconception, primarily about asking God for things. This is one kind of prayer, and an important one; Jesus himself gave us the Our Father, in which we ask God for a number of things, including our daily bread, that which we need to live. But it isn’t the main event. The primary purpose of prayer is intimacy with God. It is, ultimately an act of will, the act of focussing our attention and concentration upon the Lord, of placing ourselves in God’s presence and simply being there with Him.

This is easier said than done—indeed, without God’s grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit we couldn’t manage it at all. It takes practice, and patience, and lots and lots of grace. But the essence of love is not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us. The history of the world is not one of Man reaching up to God but of God reaching down to us. And that makes true intimacy with God possible.* And as God, infinite God, is the source of all that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful, He is the answer to our deepest yearnings.

* Please do not think that I’m writing as some kind of spiritual master. At most I’ve taken a few steps on what promises to be a very long journey. But I’ve read a lot of travel brochures!