“I thank you, Lord, with all my heart; you have heard the words of my mouth. Before the angels I will bless you. I will adore before your holy temple.” (Psalm 137:1)

To pray before the angels. Just to think of it gives joy to my soul and life to my prayer. I like to pray in a group, to feel in my brothers and sisters our common faith, to hear their voice in order to join mine to theirs, to feel surrounded and supported and understood and accompanied by others who think as I do and who appreciate and seek my company in prayer as I seek theirs. To pray in a group, in a community, in the midst of the people of God, is the height of prayer where we all become one, and each one’s prayer is multiplied by the fervour of all. To pray before my brothers and sisters.

But often I find myself alone. There is only one voice, the singing subsides, the community becomes solitude. Even so I want to pray, as prayer is part of my life and flower of my being. But loneliness and isolation can stifle it as I am alone.

Then I think of the angels. I am not alone. Their very existence is a prayer, their presence, their wings, their splendour. They “see always the face of my Father who is in heaven” as Jesus said, and that is existential prayer in permanent vigil. They are prayer in themselves, and just by sensing their presence I feel I’m in prayer. There is where I find my constant fellowship, my open chapel, my own prayer group. They are always with me, and it is enough to evoke their presence for prayer to blossom. When I recite a psalm, I recite it with them; when I sing a canticle, I sing in a choir; when I utter a petition, I sign a manifesto. We are many even if I’m only one, there is a crowd even if I’m alone, it is a whole people even if I’m only an individual. How easy it is to pray in a group, particularly when all the others are better than me! Since now I know that I am never alone when I pray.

“Before the angels I will bless you.”