The Lord Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came to ransom sinners and heal what was broken. The Lord came to us as a man. He lived a holy life. He accomplished his saving mission by his incarnation, holy life, and preeminently by his Paschal Mystery.

Through his passion, death, and resurrection, the Lord Jesus removes the wall that was separating us from God and from one another. Through his glorious resurrection, the Lord reveals himself and make himself available to all.

The Lord calls each of us as we are. He knows our personalities, temperaments, talents, strengths, and weaknesses. When he calls, he calls us as we are.

God created us as we are and it shouldn’t surprise us that he calls us according to the different parts of our personhood. God will not call a man to approach him with a feminine spirituality. God will not invite an introvert to encounter him as an extravert. God will not call a Type A personality to engage in prayer as a Type B personality.

The person we are is the person who prays. There is not one version of us who prays and a second version of us lives in the world. We are who we are and we need to use all that God has given us to pursue him and encounter him.

As Saint Paul famously taught: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.”

We are who we are, wonderfully created, and lovingly offered the gift of redemption. Our task is to accept the grace that is given to us so that God’s grace toward us is “not in vain.” It pleases God to see us flourish as his children and to seek him with all that he has given us.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “The Lord leads all persons by paths and in ways pleasing to him, and each believer responds according to his heart’s resolve and the personal expressions of his prayer.”

Our personality and temperament all affect the way we pray.

Oftentimes people will read great spiritual masterpieces and not realize that spiritual wisdom that is given to one has to be adjusted as it’s applied to another. I cannot pray like Saint Therese of Lisieux, or even Saint John Vianney. Both of these saints have wisdom and spiritual counsel that can help me seek God, but I have to discern that wisdom and them apply it to my life according to who I am.

No two saints are exactly alike. Saint Francis of Assisi showed humility in a very different way than Saint Dominic. God does not want a duplicate. He wants us to shine as the children he has created us to be. We each have something to offer that no one else can.

After acknowledging the uniqueness of every person, we can affirm that there are certain trends, principles, and general practices that are shared and can be used by every child of God (even if they are applied by each us of in a specific way).

The Catechism teaches: “However, Christian Tradition has retained three major expressions of prayer: vocal meditative, and contemplative. They have one basic trait in common: composure of heart.”

Building on our personal identity, a composure of heart needs to develop and mature in us. In this way, we share a common feature with every other person, while also growing more into who we are. As unique as we are, we are not completed projects. There is a growth that needs to happen in our souls, and the composure of heart is the way we’re called to follow to develop it.

For all of us, the work will take some vigilance and penance. We will struggle against our fallen nature and the shifting desires of our hearts, but we will need to stay the course and allow God’s grace to bless us and give us the composure of heart we need so that we can pray as he’s calling us to pray.

The growth in prayer will be seen in vocal, meditative, and contemplative prayer. These are the three springboards of prayer.

The Catechism tells us: “This vigilance in keeping the Word and dwelling in the presence of God makes these three expressions intense times in the life of prayer.”

The Lord Jesus walked among us and rose from the dead. He calls us to be with him. He summons us to grow into who we are and to approach him as we are. Our life is a gift from God. In prayer, we grow in this gift and are able to give this gift to others.

For free daily reflections from Father Kirby, please visit: dailydiscipleship.org.