Let me begin with an apology for being so late getting this posted online. My youngest daughter has been quite ill this week and I did not take the time needed to focus on writing this for the website.  Hopefully you will continue to follow this online prayer study and persist in exploring your prayer life.

This week I invite you to focus on what you understand prayer to be. When we come right down to it, why do we pray? What is our focus, our hope, our intent? Let’s begin exploring that together.

A prayer from Larry Dossey, MD from the book Prayer is Good Medicine p.88

            “May we let prayer be.

            May we allow it to follow

                        the infinite patterns of the human heart.

            May we learn to practice the most difficult art,

the art of non-interference

            May we be guided by prayer

                        instead of attempting to guide prayer.

            May we allow prayer to be what it needs to be,

                        to be what it is.

            May we let prayer be. “

Again this week, let’s look at prayer from the same three perspectives we used last time: self, scripture, and tradition. This time I want to broaden our understanding of tradition from specifically the United Church of Canada to the Christian perspective.

1.      First consider what prayer is for you? Other ways to ask that questions is:

a.       What do you understand pray to be all about?

b.      What is the purpose of prayer?

c.       Why do you pray?

d.      Are there things you use or do to help you pray?

2.      Take some time to think about what you have learned about prayer from your family, friends, tv, church, times of crisis, essentially from your own experience. What have you been taught about prayer? How have you been taught to pray? Who taught you about prayer? Spend some time giving thanks to that person/those people who greatly influenced you in developing a prayer life.

3.      Have you learned prayer to be experienced through your own words, words of others (written or spoken), music/hymns/, silence? Do you usually pray in one way more than another? What is your preferred way of praying?

1.      What does scripture teach us about prayer? Take some time and sit with the following scripture passages asking what you might learn from them about prayer, focusing on the following questions: What do you understand pray to be all about? What is the purpose of prayer? Why do you pray? And how do you pray?

a.       Mat 6: 7-8

b.      Mat 6: 9-13

c.       Mat 7: 7-11

d.      Mark 14: 32-36

e.       1 Thes 5: 16-18

f.        Romans 8: 26-27

g.       Psalm 42

I would now like us to start looking at some other people’s explanations, teachings, and writings about prayer. The number of books to look into is vast. There is a great deal written about prayer as I mentioned last time. What I want to share here are just a few quotes that I have found helpful and thought would help us to delve deeper into our own understandings of prayer and open us to explore other views of prayer.

1.       “Of course we pray in order to have the wisdom and the strength to cope with the challenges and difficulties of life. We pray for health, our own and that of loved ones and others. We pray for peace, for justice, for good government, for victims everywhere, for many thousands of things, events and situations. But prayer is not just about our basic wants, needs, hopes and fears – however altruistic and far-reaching its scope may be in the final conclusion. It’s ultimately about growing into an intimate relationship with the One in whose image we have been created. It’s about enlightenment, about finally awakening to who we really are and to our total unity with God, with all other beings, and with the seemingly inanimate parts of the cosmos as well – the sky, the seas, lakes, rivers, mountains, and winds...The ultimate and final goal of prayer is cosmic consciousness, a profound and for most a new awareness of the nature of, and reasons for, living; a loving oneness with God, with others, and with all that is.” Tom Harpur author “Prayer the Hidden Fire”, Northstone Publishing, 1998. Pp 193-194

Harpur has been a journalist at the Toronto Star covering ethics, spirituality and religion for the past 30 years. He was the Religion Editor for The Toronto Star for twelve years and since 1984 has contributed regular columns to The Star on ethical and religious topics.

2.      “Prayer is primarily paying attention to God.” Marcus Borg from “The Heart of Christianity”, Harper San Francisco, 2003. Borg is Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University and author of many bestselling books. He was an active member of the Jesus Seminar when it focused on the historical Jesus and he has been chair of the Historical Jesus section of the Society of Biblical Literature. Borg is in great demand as a speaker throughout the US and Canada, and he increasingly focuses on the topic of how to be a true Christian in the contemporary world.

3.      “God indeed listens to our prayers with loving attentiveness – though, to be sure, it does not always seem so to us. Almost everyone experiences times when God seems inattentive to what we have to say, if not entirely absent. Yet if we trust the promise of scripture that God desires an intimate relationship with us, we are impelled to communicate, to enter into the conversation or prayer. This conversation is a two way street, however, and we need to do our share of listening. The question is, how, do we listen to what God has to say?” p 21 Margaret Guenther “The Practice of Prayer”, Cowley Publications. 1998. Guenther is an Episcopal priest, spiritual director and retreat leader. She recently retired as professor of ascetical theology at the General Theological Seminary in New York, where she was the director of its Center for Christian Spirituality.

4.      “Prayer offers to God the time and the space for God to do the work of justification and sanctification in us. In that regard, prayer is more than our speaking to God. It is, in Luther’s words, ‘standing silent before God and yielding ourselves to God so that God can work in us.’” P15 Attending Parishioners’ Spiritual Growth by Thomas P. Williamsen, Alban Institute publication, 1997. Williamsen has been pastor of Gloria Die! Lutheran Church in Arnold, Maryland, since 1981. He is a retreat leader and speaker in the area of Christian Spirituality and parish development. He is also a songwriter and singer, and has published two records and books of music.

5.      “Ultimately the act of prayer does not come from within ourselves alone. In many ways God is the initiator of prayer. Prayer is the response to an invitation that comes from God to be part of a loving relationship with the One who made us, sustains us, and finally saves us from ourselves and the power of sin to destroy us.” From the book “Beginning to Pray” by Richard Beckman, Augsburg Press, 1994 p10. Beckman is a pastor in Minneapolis, has written articles on prayer and spirituality, led retreats, spoke, to groups, and assisted many on their spiritual path.

6.      “Sometimes people will say things like, ‘your prayers didn’t work, but thanks,’ as if a person could be praying for only one thing. A miracle. A cure. But in the hardest situations, all one can do is to ask for God’s mercy: Let my friend die at home, Lord, and not in the hospital. Let her go quickly, God, and with her loved ones present. One Benedictine friend, a gentle, thoughtful man who has been in constant physical pain for years and is now confined to a wheelchair, says of prayer, ‘Often, all I can do is to ask God, Lord, what is it you want of me? From him I have learned that prayer is not asking for what you think you want by asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine. TO be made more grateful, more able to see the good in what you have been given instead of always grieving for what might have been. People who are in the habit or praying...know that when a prayer is answered, it is never in a way that you expect.” P 58 Kathleen Norris, author Amazing Grace - A Vocabulary of Faith, Riverhead Books, 1998.

7.      "Prayer is [asking] for direction, for understanding...."
Edgar Cayce Reading 1816-19

8.      "...prayer is not just a matter of doing but also a way of being."
Larry Dossey, author Prayer Is Good Medicine

a.      From these readings which one challenges you the most? Why?

b.      Which reading is most helpful to your growing understanding and experience of prayer?

c.      Are you more comfortable “talking” to God or “listening” for God? Try a little of each the next time you pray.

For some people silence in prayer is almost frightening. But I would encourage you to try and make room for some silence in your prayer time. Simply sit quietly and without expectation. While you are silent you will find your mind racing and many thoughts coming into your mind. Just accept that they are there and do not let them distract you, just let them go by. Spend some time reflecting on your spoken prayers, what do you pray for? What are your prayers like, write one in your journal to look at at a later time.

Next time I want to share with you some types of prayers and ways of praying.

I hope you are enjoying this time to sit and reflect on what prayer means to you. Again I invite you to journal or talk with someone about your prayer life and how your understanding of prayer is changing (if at all).

Blessings to you as we journey together.

Mary Anningson