When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus continues in verse 7: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases like pagans, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them…”

Jesus then tells us how to pray, and teaches us the Our Father (vv.9-13).

The word of life assures us: “… your Father (God) who sees in secret will reward you.” Verse 8 adds: “For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” Prayer requires favourable conditions. One of them is to go into your room and shut the door, that is, to quieten your heart and not be immersed in your plans or worries. Today, the Internet, mass media, mobile phones, and thus constant communication with people, are major obstacles to silence of heart. There is no need to go into your room for such communication. But if you are to communicate with God, this requires outward separation from the world, but also inward silence of thoughts. It is important not to remain under the weight of the problem that you want to bring to God, but to keep focused on God’s presence. Psalm 27 reads: “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’ Do not hide Your face from me; do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.” (vv.7-9) David does not cease to call upon God, thereby also showing us how we should turn to God with great confidence: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me.” (v.10)

What does it mean to be before the face of God? It does not mean to have an extraordinary vision or apparition, but to realize God’s presence, namely that God sees me and I talk to Him, in words or just in thought, and bring my prayers to Him. I ask for the forgiveness of my sins – wilfulness, rashness, self-pity, weak faith etc. It is a face-to-face conversation. We can also apply it by looking at the image of Christ’s face. Christ is the Son of God, true God, and we can talk to Him, bring our prayers to Him and confess our sins to Him. But the problem is to find an image of the face of Christ that would not be a product of contemporary decadent church art, which in no way disposes a person to interior prayer but rather is repulsive. It is difficult to find an accurate image of Christ’s face even among classical painters or sculptors, even if they were deeply religious. How many times, when you look at the image of the crucified Christ, it makes you feel compassion, love, and gratitude to the Lord Jesus. But if you look more closely at His face, sometimes it is an expression that no longer speaks to you, but is rather empty. It is very difficult to find a truly impressive image of Christ’s face in the history of art. Moreover, it may appeal to one person and not to another. Therefore, the safest thing is just to realize that Jesus sees me and perceive in my spirit that I am standing by the cross near the Mother of Jesus and looking into Jesus’ eyes. I do not even have to imagine His face in detail. I only know this one thing: You see me, You hear me now, You speak to me now, You are here, Jesus, even if I do not see You, You are spiritually present here.

We can also apply “being before the face of God” in practice by just perceiving God above us as a source of light and having a spiritual connection with Him, which we can imagine as a ray of light. Even without any images, I can realize that I am before God’s face and perceive only that God sees me. It is like knowing that a hidden camera is now recording me, not just my movements, but even my thoughts, and presenting it to the public.

Staying before God’s face is a question of a certain self-discipline, a certain sacrifice, above all the discipline of thoughts. It often requires the correct posture. I can kneel and have my arms either in the shape of the cross, or I can have them raised or crossed over my chest. This gesture also helps us to keep focused and abide in faith. Of course, you can pray anywhere, but if you want to be in intimate communion with God, it requires a basic condition, and that is a spiritual room where you shut the door and stay undisturbed. Certainly, you can also pray in a lone park, a forest or out in the country. It is good to choose your route, for example 50 or 100 metres, and walk there and back, oblivious of your surroundings and only aware that God sees you.

Download: Reflection on Mt 6:6