Prayer

I have not really understood how prayer works, or how it's supposed to work. I can't say that it does not work either, because it does have some comfort factor attached to it. I don't know if someone up above is literally listening to what each of us say or ask, or if it is another way we make peace with our subconscious, by striking a deal consciously, and hence feeling reassured of not having any more conflicting voices. Either way, does not matter, because that's not what this post is about. I just remembered something from way back in my childhood, which I find very amusing. Growing up in a very church oriented household, I was taught the importance of prayer very early on. It was no surprise that my dad took great pride in the fact that I could recite the lords prayer very early on and even say the benediction without flaw. I never missed a chance to use my talents during family prayer time and the only hard time was when we had another priest or bishop visit home, and I just would not give up my right to say the benediction or prayer. Most of the time it turned out that we ended up having two prayers as well as two benedictions. What I find amusing was how I got to learn the power of prayer. This incident happened when I was maybe three or four years old and yet I do remember it clearly. In Kerala we used to have power cuts that lasted for 30 minutes. We still have it. Anyway, 30 minutes without power was a little too much for me to handle as a three year old. The first ten minutes were OK and then I would start becoming cranky. By the time it was close to thirty minutes, I used to whine a lot and my dad came up with a very creative idea to pacify me. He told me to pray and that God would bring the power back. Now it always so happened that I reached this point just as the scheduled power cut was about to get over and almost every time, the power came back on as I was half way through my prayer, asking God to fix the lines, or when I had just said amen. Each time it amazed me, that God was listening to my prayers and that I had the power to bring the power back. This probably made me feel more worthy than a bishop to pray or say the benediction. Little did I realize that each time I was asked to pray, there was hardly a minute for the power to come back. Now that I think for myself, it seems amusing. I did remind my dad and ask him about this incident and he says that he was not trying to trick me into believing that prayer works. He said that I reached the level of crankiness in 30 minutes and asking me to pray was a way of shutting me down and pacifying me. Looking back at it, it does not matter. I still do pray, and not because I felt that I could ask God to bring the power back, but just because I want to. I still don't know how prayer works, but I don't think that it matters to me. The reasons I pray could be totally different from any of you and what I call prayer can be totally different too, but it does make my day better, and puts to rest any conflict or uneasiness I have within.