There is a remarkable story of transformation that occurs in the Old Testament, and it happens to a character we all know very well.
“Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2:11-12)
Many of us may not be familiar with this aspect of Moses' early character, but apparently he had a bit of a temper.
Later in Moses' life however, in the Book of Numbers, we read about a remarkable transformation that occurred. This is the story about how Miriam and Aaron chose to criticize Moses over his decision to marry a Cushite wife. They were very dismissive of Moses and suggested that God did not rely only on Moses to guide the Israelite people.
“Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” (Numbers 12:2)
In the midst of this difficult criticism, we not only do not see Moses getting angry, but Scripture actually says he was a man of profound meekness.
“Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3)
So what happened here? How was Moses, who at one point in his early life was willing to kill a man, later found to have been transformed into the meekest man on earth?
Well it goes without saying that between these two periods in his life Moses spent a good deal of time before God. Indeed, even God Himself said that if He were to communicate to the people through a prophet, He (God) would speak to that individual in dreams. But speaking to Miriam and Aaron about Moses, God actually came to Moses' defense when He said:
“When there are prophets among you, I the Lord make myself known to them in visions;
I speak to them in dreams. Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house.
With him I speak face to face— clearly, not in riddles; and he beholds the form of the Lord.” (Numbers 12:6-8)
God must have shared a great deal with Moses during those extended conversations, and they appear to have genuinely transformed the character and personality of Moses in a profound way. The physical evidence of this is found in the radiant exterior appearance of Moses whenever he came from the Lord's presence.
“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.” (Exodus 34:29)
This radiance on Moses' face occurred every time he presented himself before God.
“The sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.” (Exodus 34:35)
But this exterior radiance was merely an indication of the transformation that had occurred in Moses' interior disposition, the disposition of his heart before God. This is true for all of us. Time spent in prayer before God literally changes us.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Building on this theme of Moses’ transformation to meekness and our desire to get the most out of prayer, we might consider one of the nine different prayer positions of St. Dominic. St. Dominic was a Spaniard who died in the early 1200’s, and he was the Founder of the Dominicans, also known as the Order of Preachers. St. Dominic was considered a master of prayer who developed nine different positions that he would assume in his prayer practices, each with a specific purpose.
In one of the nine positions of prayer, St. Dominic would simply lie stretched out on the floor in a physical expression of total humility, helplessness and vulnerability before God. In this position, he would intercede and plead God’s mercy for the Church, the world and especially for himself. He would acknowledge that only God could bring about the plans that were ultimately in the best interest of all those for whom he would pray, as well as for Dominic himself. This prayer position was an exterior expression of Dominic's desire for personal and interior transformation.
Now I realize that we may not all be able to find a place to pray where we can lay prostrate on the ground, but it is not so much the exterior posture or position we assume in prayer as it is the disposition of our heart. So often our hearts are pulled in multiple directions when we pray. We may think and even say and believe that what we want is for God to do His work in us and have His way with our lives. But the truth is we are always torn between our desire for what we know is best, i.e. God's Will, and our counter desire to have our worldly circumstances work out the way we want.
Have you ever tried to imagine when you pray that you are actually laying down on the ground prostrate before God, completely disposed to accept whatever it is that He wants to do in your life? We can use our bodies and prayer postures to reflect the depths of our heart as St. Dominic did. This can be a very powerful method of prayer. But the main thing is to make sure our hearts have the proper disposition to both desire and accept what it is that God wants to give us, whether it be a blessing or a trial.
If we can properly dispose ourselves for prayer in this way, then all the circumstances of our lives, the easy and the difficult, will serve to transform us into the persons God has destined us to be. If we can properly dispose our hearts for prayer, then God will undoubtedly allow us to reflect the radiance of His glory in our very lives. And people will begin to see the radiance of God in our appearance. In addition, we will be following the example of the one God sent to serve as our very model for prayer and transformation.
“After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves to pray. As the men watched, Jesus' appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.” (Matthew 17:1-2)
Please take some time this week to pray that we might all dispose our hearts to accept whatever it is that the Lord is doing in our lives at this time. And having prostrated ourselves before our merciful God, we might all be increasingly transformed by our encounter with Him.
Copyright © 2025, Deacon Mark Danis
Image credit: “The Transfiguration,” Raphael (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican), Public domain, via WikiArt