Some of the most powerful communications are wordless.

 

A look, a hand signal, a wave, a blown kiss … all of these can convey plenty without a word being spoken.

 

The most meaningful connections with God also can be without words.

 

A parishioner at my parish rather suddenly has had to deal with a serious medical issue. He began therapy at a local care facility and his usual ways of praying sort of evaporated. Like most people in the throes of a health dilemma, it can be impossible to pray as we are used to.

 

Yet he says he felt that God was with him. “It’s just Him and me,” he says, “and that’s the prayer.”

 

All of us are used to rote prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary. Other vocal prayers include the words of the Mass, of litanies, novenas and the like. They are important and effective, and some are inspiring and can help us look at God or His saints in a new way. Many of us probably have holy cards with prayers we perhaps pray daily. 

 

But we may realize sometimes that words are getting in the way as we try to connect with God. It can feel rather like our efforts are just a matter of throwing words at God and maybe using them to avoid looking at Him or allowing Him to speak to us.

 

At one point, Jesus cautioned his disciples to not pray like the pagans do, “who think that they will be heard because of their many words” (Mt 6:7). He continued by insisting that God “knows what you need before you ask Him” (Mt 6:8).

 

Wordless prayers — like what St. Teresa of Jesus (of Avila) describes as a matter of looking at Him who loves us — are incredibly valuable. It is a worthy goal to learn to just be in God’s presence without yammering at Him, learning how to surrender our very selves into His hands quietly for a long or short moment of time.

 

For most of us, that way of looking at and connecting to God without words will take lots of practice. By and large we are verbal people. When we get discouraged, we should remind ourselves that it can be done, and it has been done over the centuries with God’s help. 

 

St. John of the Cross describes a wonderful prayer scene where he comes across Jesus in a quiet clearing with no one else around. He ends that poem with words that have long fascinated and attracted his readers: “Laying my face on my Beloved, All things ceased, I went out from myself, Leaving my cares forgotten with the lilies.” 

 

“Holding out your heart to God” is another description of a without words prayer. Perhaps these kinds of images can help us derail wordiness for a time.

 

Some days, however, any attempts to quiet down seem fruitless. We want and need to talk through our problems and puzzlements with God, and that’s fine. He can help us through what might be days of bringing a dilemma to Him before we begin to see a way through or a way to hover within it if that’s what is necessary. God can give us answers without words even as we use words to explain things to Him and to ourselves.

 

God also can assure us that we are not alone — and that assurance just might be enough for us to be able to continue carrying our crosses somehow.

 

Some saints tell us that with one word, God can provide us with that word’s essence. For example, His word of “peace” can bring us peace. One sentence or phrase from the Bible can jump out and sink in and give us the comfort or insight it embodies.

 

To praise God, perhaps we can imagine our hearts and souls doing cartwheels, jumping for joy within us with just one or two enthusiastic words of thanksgiving!

 

If ever we were blessed with a relationship where a family member or good friend was content to sit with us quietly, watching a sunset or other instance of beauty, just being together in the silence, why not picture something similar with Jesus?

 

For each of us, there’s a way to deeper, quieter communication with God. May we explore and reach for a moment of God-and-me, and that’s the prayer!