Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38–42 (RSV)
"First of all, it is very important to remember that prayer is an encounter and a relationship, a relationship which is deep, and this relationship cannot be forced either on us or on God. The fact that God can make Himself present or can leave us with the sense of His absence is part of this live and real relationship" Archbishop Anthony Bloom
Beginning to Pray p. 2
Martha was not wrong to say there was work to be done, there was. The work was not unimportant. It wasn't the good portion, the needful thing. Mary grasped this; thus, the needful place was at Jesus' feet. The work would keep for a later time. In that hour, it matters very little if the work that occupied Martha ever got done. Jesus is the good portion of the Father who Mary had set aside all else to receive.
Mary was learning to pray as she listened to Jesus. She was learning to allow her focus to be on Him as He fashioned ties between Himself and Mary. Pray is born as our relationship with Jesus begins and does not end this side of the resurrection.
Mary discovered that prayer is to listen to Jesus. We too often fill the air with our words, thinking that prayer is a thing we must perform to please the Lord. We hope that if we say the right words, in the correct amount, then we break through to Jesus. If this is our only prayer, it will never mature beyond our reciting a list of our wants and needs.
A priest in rural France newly arrived in his parish, discovered that an old villager came to the church every day and sat in the same pew. He never said or appeared to do anything. He silently sat, sometimes for a few minutes, other times for an hour or more. This ritual never failed, regardless of the weather or the aches the old man obviously suffered.
One day the priest sat near the old man. As they sat in silence, the time ticked by until the priest spoke, 'You are here every day. You sit in this same spot, and that is all you do. What purpose is there in this?'
The old man replied in a voice barely above a whisper, 'I come to Him, He comes to me. I share my heart with Him; He shares His heart with me. We do not need words, for He knows my prayers before I can say them. He answers them all with His love, and then I depart in His peace.'
Mary sat at the Lord's feet, learning prayer as did the old man in the parish church centuries later. Our prayer is Jesus, and He is the answer to our prayer. He is the good portion that cannot be taken away.