PRAYER IS NOT A TECHNIQUE

 

PRAYER IS NOT A TECHNIQUE,  BUT A RELATIONSHIP

 

Most of us find it almost impossible not to think of prayer as a special activity in life:  an art that can be taught or learned rather as we can learn to play a musical instrument.   Because of this, some of us are quick to feel we are proficient, others that we are painfully handicapped,  are missing out on some secret or have some lack in our nature which makes prayer difficult if not impossible for us.   We feel there are certain laws governing prayer, and techniques to be mastered, and, when we have got hold of these, we can pray.

 

Thus we tend to look around for the guru,  for the one who has mastered the art and its techniques, and eagerly look to be taught.   When we take up a book or article on prayer,  we shall probably detect, if we stop to think, that we are looking for the key,  the magic formula that is going to put our prayer right, enable us "to make a go" of this mysterious activity called prayer.   We may feel that others seem to take it in their stride but somehow it does not work for us, and anxiously we look hither and thither for someone who will hand us the secret.

 

All this is proof enough that we are overlooking the fundamental fact:  that  prayer is not a technique but a relationship.   There is no handicap,  no obstacle,  no problem.  The only problem is that we do not want God.   We may want a "spiritual life,"  we may want "prayer,"  but we do not want God.  All anyone can do for us, any guru can teach us, is to keep our eyes on Jesus.

 

(This reflection is by  Sr. Ruth Burrows  and appears in her work:   Essence of Prayer.  It appears in the October 30th reflection in GIVE US THIS DAY,  a monthly missalette from Liturgical Press,  www.giveusthisday.org.   Sr. Ruth is a Carmelite nun at Quidenham Monastery in Norfolk, England, and is the author of several best-selling books on spirituality and prayer.)

 

 

PRAYING WITH THE FALL SEASON

 

 

Before you strip the trees of all their color, Lord,
before the branches shed their fallish frocks,
take out your brush once more and camouflage my life...

Blend me in and hide me in the colors all around
and clothe me in a jacket dyed bloodred:
fall's final affirmation, autumn's triumph,
nature signing as the artist on all the work you've done,
your promise of life's victory over any season's passing...

Paint me in the scene and let me see within
the beauty all about me, the colors of your life
bleeding out from my soul's palette, mixed and
brightened in this late October's light...

Camouflage my life in shades and hues of grace, Lord,
and blend me into your embrace as my heart sheds
its fallish frock and looks to winter's coming
and its gray and shorter days...

Clothe my soul in bloodred love
and plant the seeds of spring within where they might sleep
'til light and warmth again will tease and rouse them
and they wake to bloom, springing up,
a garden of your colors, of your beauty...

 

(This picture and reflection comes from a daily blog by a Boston, MA pastor called:   A Concord Pastor Comments;  it includes wonderful daily prayers, reflections on the scriptures, etc   You can go to the website and subscribe to it for free.   It is highly recommended.)

COMPASSIONATE PRAYER

 

WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT COMPASSION AND PRAYER?

 

Compassionate prayer on behalf of others is central to the Bible.  Abraham intercedes for the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and thereby saves them from God's anger  (Gen. 18:32).  When the Israelites break the covenant of Mt. Sinai by worshiping the golden calf, it is only the intercession of Moses that prevents their destruction (Exod. 32: 11-14)...

 

As  disciples of the compassionate Lord who took upon himself the condition of a slave and suffered death for our sake, there are no boundaries to our prayers.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer expressed this with powerful simplicity when he wrote that to pray for others is to give them "the same right we have received, namely, to stand before Christ and share in his mercy."

 

When we come before God with the needs of the world, then the healing love of God which touches us touches all those whom we bring before him with the same power.  This experience of God's healing love can become so real, so immediate, that at times we can even sense God's healing grace in the lives of others., although they may be far away physically, mentally, or spiritually.

 

Thus compassionate prayer does not encourage us to flee from people and their concrete problems into a self-serving individualism.   By deepening our awareness of our common suffering, it draws us all closer together in the healing presence of God.  It reaches out not only to those whom we love and admire, but also to those whom we consider our enemies.

 

Prayer cannot exist together with hostile feelings.   The fruit of prayer is always love.   In prayer, even the unprincipled dictator and the vicious torturer can no longer remain the objects of our fear, hatred, and revenge, because when we pray, we stand at the center of the great mystery of divine compassion.

 

 

(reflection is by Fr. Henri Nouwen and appears in his work:  "Anchored in God through Prayer")

PRAYER NEEDS A COMMUNITY OF FAITH

 

( a picture of the friars and the hermits at Nazareth Hermitage)

 

Prayer and its need for a Community of Faith

 

Just because prayer is so personal and arises from the center of our life, it is to be shared with others.   Just because prayer is the most precious expression of being human, it needs the constant support and protection of the community to grow and flower.   Just because prayer is our highest vocation needing careful attention and faithful perseverance, we cannot allow it to be a private affair.  Just because prayer asks for a patient waiting in expectation, it should never become the most individualistic expression of the most individualistic emotion, but should always remain embedded in the life of the community of which we are part.

 

Prayer as a hopeful and joyful waiting for God is a really unhuman or superhuman task unless we realize that we do not have to wait alone.  In the community of faith we can find the climate and the support to sustain and deepen our prayer, and we are enabled to constantly look forward beyond our immediate and often narrowing private needs.  The community of faith offers the protective boundaries within which we can listen to our deepest longings, not to indulge in morbid introspection, but to find our God to whom they point.   In the community of faith we can listen to our feelings of loneliness, to our desires for an embrace or a kiss, to our sexual urges, to our cravings for sympathy, compassion, or just a good word;  also to our search for insight and to our hope for companionship and friendship.  In the community of faith we can listen to all these longings and find the courage, not to avoid them or cover them up, but to confront them in order to discern God's presence in their midst.   There we can affirm each other in our waiting and also in the realization that in the center of our waiting the first intimacy with God is found.   There we can be patiently together and let the suffering of each day convert our illusions  into the prayer of a contrite people.   The community of faith is indeed the climate and source of all prayer. 

 

(quote by Fr. Henri Nouwen in his book,   Reaching Out,  copyright 1975.)