According to Catholic teaching, all those various forms of prayer have value. You never grow out of or get past needing to pray vocal prayers such as the Rosary. You never become too holy or wise to present your needs to God in mental prayer. Think of it this way: A wife never tires of hearing her husband say, “I love you,” no matter how many years they’ve been married. A father never wants his son to stop communicating his needs and struggles to him, no matter how old the son gets. The same goes for God. He neither wants nor expects you to stop saying the prayers you learned as a child or being honest with him about what you desire and fear.
The reason for that, however, isn’t that God needs to hear fifty Hail Marys or he wouldn’t know what you wanted if you didn’t tell him. In the end, prayer isn’t for God’s benefit at all. It’s for your benefit.
The Necessity of Prayer
God wants you to pray because you need prayer. You need to be in relationship with him. It’s what you were made for. Prayer brings you into that relationship. It nourishes it, sustains it, and helps it grow.
Prayer also changes you, or more accurately, it helps you become the person God made you to be. When you pray you learn from God. You hear his voice leading you, and that helps you make wise choices. It becomes your compass, always guiding you to the “true North.” That same voice roots you in the real meaning and purpose of your life. It reminds you who made you and for what purpose he made you. “Our life can only be comprehended, has meaning only when it is considered in its relationship to God. Without it, our life splinters into a thousand problems of relative importance,”7 John Paul explained.
That’s why all the various forms of prayer matter. You need vocal prayers in the same way a husband and wife need regular expressions of their love for one another. Lest we forget: marriage is a reflection of the Trinity, so what we do in a great marriage is a good analogy to how we are invited to interact with God. Saying a Rosary every morning is, in some ways, like the husband who brings his wife coffee every morning. It’s a daily habit of love. Love needs those daily habits. It needs routines. We all need routines. They order our lives and help keep us on the right path. Vocal prayers do just that. They form us in the habit of faith.
Likewise, we need mental prayer. We need to talk to God, to communicate with him about what’s taking place in our minds and hearts, because we need to hear his voice speaking to the problems of our day. That’s why it’s important that mental prayer never become a mere rattling off of our wish lists to God. It needs to be a real conversation, with intense periods of listening.
We need meditation, with the insights intense reflection brings and the connections it can help us make between the events of Scripture or the teachings of the Church and the realities of our own life. We likewise need contemplation: We need to rest in God’s presence and learn to receive the grace that he wants to give us.
Prayer and the Pope
In all those ways, prayer shaped the leadership that John Paul II exercised in the Church.
First, prayer reordered his vision, helping him see all the events of his life and papacy in light of God’s plan. This, for example, is why he was able to thank God for the attempt on his life made by Ali Agca in 1981.
On May 13 of that year, while greeting pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, John Paul was shot at close range by the Turkish assassin.8 He credited his narrow escape from death to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. The actual day of the assassination attempt was one of her great feast days, the memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. On that day, sixty-four years before, Mary predicted the fall of godless Communism in Russia. John Paul saw no coincidence in that. Instead, he saw the assassination attempt and his recovery as a sign. That sign, understood through prayer, clarified his vision and made him more resolute in his stand against communism.
John Paul II saw all the great struggles of his life that way—the loss of his mother at a young age, the early death of his brother and then father, his persecution at the hands of the Nazis and the Soviets. All were experiences that could easily have destroyed another man’s faith or made him bitter and hard. Prayer enabled John Paul II to see those events in light of God’s love, as preparation for the service he was eventually called to give God and his Church.
Prayer is also what guided John Paul II. During the years I served him and long after, he would do his brainstorming and much of his writing in his private chapel, in front of the Eucharist. He also spent hours laying prostrate in prayer. He would praise God, be with God, petition God, and present to God the events and problems he faced. In prayer, he would reflect on what others had said to him, what others wanted him to do. When he left the chapel, he would act based upon the knowledge and understanding he gained during those hours.
When you ask people who met John Paul II in person what their impressions were of their meeting, almost invariably they’ll say how intensely he focused on them. “As if I were the only person in the world,” is the phrase most often heard. That too came from prayer. Prayer made John Paul II a better listener. In learning to be still and focus on God, he also learned how to be still and focus on others, to set everything else aside and be in the moment.
In the later years, when I would visit the Vatican or call a friend there and ask how the pope was doing, I would hear that his physical state was increasingly frail, that he was slowly becoming a prisoner in his own body. The strong, athletic man I’d served was slipping away. As the physical world lost its hold on him, eternity tightened its grip.
“He comes out of prayer to do what we need him to do, then goes back into prayer,” a friend once told me.
Prayer, up until the very end, was John Paul II’s home base. He didn’t retreat into prayer to escape from the demands of his aides and the world, but rather to be alone with God, whom he loved above all else.
Those hours alone with God fed that love. They taught him who God was. They revealed his glory, his merciful heart, and his fatherly compassion. All that was revealed to John Paul II in prayer was shared with the world. Because he knew who God was, he could present the Catholic faith in a positive, optimistic way—not as a set of rules or limitations, but as the merciful path to Christ himself.
That’s how he presented the Faith to the world, and that’s how he presented it to me. In our conversations, he wasn’t a stern or authoritarian figure, lecturing me and making me feel inadequate. He was like a coach, urging on one of his athletes. His own confidence in God’s love and mercy came through in our talks and made holiness seem not necessarily easy, but at least possible. That’s also why he canonized and beatified so many men and women: 1,345 priests, religious, and lay people were declared “Blessed” during his papacy, and 483 were declared saints. He wanted to show the world that God didn’t call just the first Christians to holiness. He calls all of us to holiness and gives all his children the grace to become so.
People heard what John Paul II was saying. They came to believe because of his witness. They came to understand because of his teaching. Countless lives have been changed because of the man and leader John Paul II was. He was the man and leader he was primarily because of his relationship with God, a relationship forged and sustained through prayer.
Prayer and the CEO
It takes more to run a business or manage a team than just prayer. All the prayer in the world is not going to make up for a lack of skill. Piety does not replace expertise or knowledge. It enhances it.
It does that in two primary ways.
First, prayer can be a source of guidance. The more you pray, the more you learn to discern God’s voice. When multiple options are before you, whether it’s making a new hire, choosing a new business partner, or launching a new product, you usually consult someone—advisors, partners, or a spouse. You want someone’s input other than your own. Well, God also has input to give. Almost always, he has some wisdom or insight to impart that will help you in your decision. Taking that decision to prayer is how you get the input he offers.
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br /> That input is as much about you as it is about the decision itself. You gain self-knowledge in prayer. You can learn why you’re leaning toward hiring a specific person or why you’re leery about making a certain deal. Once, in prayer, I realized that I was letting a past experience unfairly influence how I was interacting with someone. Another time, I came to understand that the reason I didn’t want to make a deal wasn’t because the deal was bad, but because I didn’t like the direction and values of the other company involved. Those are the sorts of guidance prayer can give.
Seeking God’s perspective also helps you better understand the people you work with and for. You learn to see them with his eyes. You’re forced to contemplate how he would have you solve a problem or resolve difficulties and check your own, often imperfect, impulses to react out of anger or frustration. You’re also forced to consider what’s just and what’s merciful. Prayer is a tool for justice and mercy, helping you to treat others with both—in the right degrees and right ways at the right time—because it connects you with God, who is justice and mercy.
Prayer isn’t, however, a magic wishing well or a vending machine for spiritual wisdom. Sometimes God doesn’t respond right away. When you ask for help or understanding, there might be only silence. That too is a form of guidance. It slows you down, delays action until the time is right, and teaches you the importance of patience.
In all those ways, prayer serves as a powerful guide to running a successful business and living a happy life. Even more important than receiving guidance from God is what asking for that guidance does to you.
A School for Humility
When we pray we acknowledge our dependence on Another. We acknowledge that God is the Creator, and we are merely creatures, living in service to Someone far greater than ourselves. What prayer teaches us is the virtue of humility. There are few virtues more important for any leader.
Without humility, it’s easy for whatever you’re doing to become all about you. Success becomes all about you. Failure becomes all about you. Decisions become all about you. The more this mindset takes hold of a leader, the more he forgets the real purpose of his work. He forgets the customers he serves and the people he leads. He forgets he’s not just leading a team, but that he’s a part of a team and ultimately responsible for that team’s livelihood. That forgetfulness manifests itself in things like separate elevators and entrances for the CEO and any number of other perks designed to insulate leaders from the rest of the business. It also manifests itself in reckless, prideful, and unreflective decision-making.
Making business decisions just for the short-term and not the long-term causes untold damage to a company. Even more damaging are the decisions based on the owner’s or CEO’s pride. Pride destroys perspective. It leads you not only to think that you know best, but also that you, in fact, are the only one who knows anything at all.
Years ago, when I was still with FTP Software, the head of our company decided to purchase another company based in my territory. The company purchased was a mess—poorly run, poorly staffed, and permeated by a culture of deception. I knew this. Everyone familiar with the company knew this. But the CEO never asked me. He assumed he knew best and our company later paid the price for his pride.
Another company I once worked for had an unbelievable opportunity to partner with a young, cutting-edge firm. The CEO passed up that opportunity. He said he didn’t want to “deal with those kids.” What he didn’t want was to admit that some start-up staffed by a bunch of newcomers could help us. Again, pride.
Long ago, in the Garden of Eden, the serpent played upon the pride of Adam and Eve bring about their fall from grace. He told them not to worry about what God said, to do what they wanted, that everything would be okay. The same thing goes on in businesses big and small today. Pride runs amok. It feeds delusions. It makes people think they’re invincible and above the petty rules and obligations by which others must abide. It also makes them forgetful of their responsibilities and blinds them to the wisdom and talents others have to offer.
The only antidote to pride is humility, and honest prayer always produces that virtue. It reminds us of our dependency on God, grace, and the gifts he gives us through others. It also produces leaders who know themselves, know God, and know others with a clarity and wisdom that can’t be attained merely through human effort. Prayer nourishes leaders with the grace they need to lead.
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John Paul II once wrote that many people told him that they didn’t know how to pray. His response was always the same. “Everyone can pray,” he would say. “It is simple. The important thing is that you keep doing it.”9
Most of us have little say about the quality of our prayers. The quality is a gift of grace that comes from God. What we do have a say in, however, is how much we pray. We can choose to make a habit of relying on God. We can choose to go to him again and again, to build a relationship. Or we can choose to ignore him.
Every time you pray you choose God. The more you make that choice, the easier prayer becomes. The easier prayer becomes, the more you’ll find yourself praying. It’s a circle, but it’s a circle of grace, with God leading you more and more, often in ways unknown or unseen.
I discovered this truth when I was still a Swiss Guard, and John Paul II gave me a beautiful rosary, one with his special Salvador Dali Crucifix on the end. “Pray this prayer. It is my favorite prayer,” he said to me then.
I took it, but without having the slightest clue what to do with it. Another priest at the Vatican eventually taught me how to pray the Rosary, and I slowly started practicing what he taught me. I came to love that prayer too, and through that prayer, came to understand so much about God and his will for my life, including that he was calling me to leave the Guards and marry Michelle.
Today, I still carry that rosary in my pocket wherever I go. It’s a reminder to pray and an aid to prayer. It’s more than that. Over the years I’ve developed the habit of holding it in my hand when I’m in conversation with people at work. It reminds me to listen to people while they talk, to wait for them to say what’s really on their mind, and to think before speaking. Most of all, it reminds me of God and my dependence on him. Remembering that is a prayer in itself.
Practical Prayer
Looking to deepen your prayer life? These tips can help.
Be aware. Before you pray, focus on the fact that God is present and listening. Throughout your time in prayer, continue to cultivate an awareness of his presence.
Slow down. When reading the Scriptures or the writings of Church fathers, Doctors, and saints, don’t race from passage to passage. Treat the reading like a love letter from God, savor the text, and ask God to help you understand the connection between the words on the page and the circumstances in your life and heart.
Praise always. Don’t take God’s goodness or love for granted. Thank him by acknowledging all that he is and all he’s done for you.
Tell him you’re sorry. You don’t have to wait for confession to examine your conscience. Make a habit of doing this nightly. Then express contrition to God and ask for the grace to do better the next day.
Be attentive. Listen for God’s voice in the movements of your soul, cultivating an awareness of feelings of consolation and desolation (joy and sorrow) as you pray.
Plan for prayer. Don’t let a day go by without making time for God. Schedule a daily appointment with God and never miss it. Also, cultivate a rhythm of prayer throughout the day: praying the Angelus at noon, grace before meals, and small invocations such as “Lord, come to my assistance” before beginning difficult tasks.
Pray in all things. Make your life a prayer by making a gift of yourself. This can include regular fasting and acts of renunciation, giving generously to those in need, and setting aside your own plans to assist another. Every time you make one of these sacrifices, great or little, say silently, “Lord, I give this to you.”
Questions for Reflection
Describe your ide
al prayer life. When do you pray? How? Where? How often? Make a six-month outline and put your plan into reality.
Have you ever turned to God for help in a difficult situation, either at work or at home? Describe the difference that made.
Describe a difficult situation at work where you did not ask God for help or guidance? Why? What happened as a result?
What are at least three ways that praying more about your work and decision-making could make you a better leader?
Epigraph. Wednesday General Audience (January 26, 2005).
Chapter Three
Know What’s Right:
Ethics and the Human Person
So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin.
James 4:17
Each person, in some way, is called to work for the common good, constantly looking out for the good of others as if it were his own.
The Pope & the CEO Page 5
