I pray all the time. I do not mean “every minute,” but many times a day.
My understanding and practice of prayer are grounded in my understanding of God, the Sacred. I see God as a presence, as the one “in whom we live and move and have our being,” to quote words attributed to Paul in Acts 17.28.
For me, prayer – addressing God, paying attention to my relationship with God – is about reminding me of the reality and presence of God in the course of my day and days. It is about centering more deeply in God and about “opening” to God. It helps me to be more centered, more present, more appreciative.
What about prayers in which we ask for something – prayers of petition and intercession? To speak personally (and how else can we speak?), I do not think of God as an interventionist – that God “decides” to answer some prayers. To imagine that God sometimes intervenes leaves all the non-interventions inexplicable.
And yet I “do” both petitionary and intercessory prayer. I pray for help for myself. As Anne Lamott remarks in one of her books, the two most genuine prayers are “Help me, help me, help me” and “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
I also pray for help and health and protection for family, friends, and “the world.” Doing so is a natural expression of caring; for me, it would be unnatural not do this. And not to do so because I can’t imagine how it works would be an act of intellectual arrogance – if I can’t imagine how something works, then it can’t work.
So I don’t believe that God sometimes intervenes to answer prayer. But this doesn’t prevent me from thinking that prayer sometimes has effects, even though I can’t imagine how. I am very willing to think of other ways of imagining God’s relation to the world, such as speaking of divine intention and divine interaction. At the very least, I am convinced that prayer changes us – that it transforms those who pray. This has been my experience.
Originally posted on the Washington Post website.
The comment often attributed to Paul in Acts 17:28 (“God in whom we live and move and have our being”) so I was taught in seminary, was a quote Paul used from the Cretan philosopher/poet Epimenides. To my mind, this is a good thing showing Paul’s acquaintance with the thought of his day. Yet, I do take the statement as one that reveals an important truth about our placement with the Holy One. It is a deep and profound truth. I also feel that the more we allow ourselves to be wrapped in this Presence the more we see the movement and activity of God in our lives.
‘Prayer’ is after all, not about intellectual struggle but about sitting still in the presence of God who will come of his own accord.
Bob,
Are you confident that you are doing everything you are actually capable of doing in this world to intercede in Phil’s return to alcohol?
If so, then pray to place Phil in the hands of God, confess to God any deliberate shortcomings you have in this matter, and pray for the courage to continue your life. Many times over the next many days, you will have to pray Phil into the care of God – that’s OK. In this way, you can pray for Phil and pray for yourself.
It probably will be painful and sorrowful. It does not have to be debilitating. It is OK to grieve, it is not OK to stop living or to stop moving. Keep living, keep moving. It will take time. Focus on getting through where you are right now – and not on what could have been or what should happen tomorrow.
Peace, my brother,
Doug
I’ve been struggling a lot with prayer lately. I’m a retired Episcopal priest, a recovered alcoholic, who works with young men from the local jail and the state prison, trying to help them find recovery and a way to live productively. I become deeply attached to these guys. About 3 years ago Phil asked me to do the work of the 12 steps with him, and we did much deep and hard work together. After almost 5 months of sobriety he experimented with drinking again, and has been struggling ever since. I’m afraid I made him my “test case,” to see whether working the steps exactly as the Big Book presents them really does lead to a spiritual experience that expels the obsession to drink or drug. My problem is that he has now been drinking on the streets of a major city for months, sliding deeper and deeper into what seems to me a bottomless pit, and none of my efforts and my unceasing prayer are accomplishing anything–except leading me to believe that prayer, in fact, changes nothing. I can’t stop asking God to heal him and lead him to wholeness, but it feels hypocritical and just plain false to keep on. And I don’t know what to do about other people who ask me to pray for specific people and needs. Somehow “You don’t really think my prayers will help, do you?” doesn’t sound like an appropriate reply. Any thoughts, anyone? I’m pretty desperate about this.
Thank you Bob, for touching my heart with your post.
God bless you and your work.
May I pray for you now?
Using two Buddhist prayers that I know:
Let your love flow outward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.
And:
Just as the soft rains fill the streams,
pour into the rivers, and join together in the oceans,
so may the power of every moment of your goodness
flow forth to awaken and heal all beings–
those here now, those gone before, those yet to come.
For all in whose heart dwells respect,
who follow the wisdom and compassion, of the Way,
may your life prosper in the four blessing
of old age, beauty, happiness, and strength.
‘Prayer’ is a fine concept BUT while I perceive ‘God’ as a loving creator etc who revealed his nature in Jesus Christ, I still can’t cross the intellectual chasm between ME and HIM/HER.
I know about Him but I can’t address him—it seems silly to petition a Force–I would call myself a panentheist but that still leaves God away out there –far , far away even though I also sense he is immanent—still there is nothing personal about Him!
Teilhard and Brian Swimme and Tom Berry makes so much sense to me but still I cannot say ‘Thou’ or even ‘You’!
S.O. S.
Norma
I do not pray regularly, though maybe I should in that I have seen its transformative effect on the person doing the praying. I was much impressed with an interview Thich Nhat Hanh did with Publisher’s Weekly discussing prayer. Lately, I have been wondering about Paul’s admonition to “pray without ceasing,” not in the sense that the monk in “The Way of a Pilgrim” did, but more in sense of the human being intent on developing compassion for all beings, and its esoteric connection with the Buddhist practice of tonglen. Even if there is no direct response to selfless prayer, the act itself has a beneficial effect on those around the person praying, right?