The eCrozier

This is the fourth in a series of Ecroziers on the practices of the Christian Faith

Prayer

Two-thousand years ago Christ’s disciples gave voice to a request that echoes through the ages and is heard by clergy today more often, perhaps, than any other: “Teach us to pray.” Nothing is more fundamental and yet less understood in the Christian life than the practice of prayer. Simply put, prayer is about being in relationship with God. God created us out of God’s love and so that we might love one another as a response to that love. The Biblical narrative is this love story and it reflects God’s desire is to be in relationship with us. Prayer is our response to God’s loving relationship with us. And like our human loving relationships, prayer takes time, commitment, good communication, and helps us become who God intends we become.

There is no one way to pray, but over the centuries the Church has learned prayer disciplines: keeping a regular, realistic time to pray, preparing ourselves for prayer both internally and externally, and sticking with it. The practice of prayer takes practice. We shouldn’t bounce from one type to another. When we find something that works for us it’s best to stay with it. Any Christian who prays knows that in order for the exercise to become a daily one, s/he has to find a regular time for it and then s/he has to order it into a routine. Variety is the last thing we need. The Church has pursued disciplines like this for centuries. Jesus and his disciples were accustomed to such routines from their Jewish roots. We need a daily time and place to pray. Then we can hear God and see what God has done and is doing in the life of the world. This is basic to the Christian life because we must first hear and see clearly, before we can act faithfully.

We should also acknowledge that learning to pray is no easy matter. It requires much training. It does no one any good to have faith in Jesus, unless they learn to pray as he taught. In other words, we don’t believe in God, then become humble, and then learn to pray. It really occurs the other way around. By learning to pray, we humbly discover that we can’t do anything else other than believe in God. What we do when we pray is to take part in the ongoing life of the Church. We’ll find that our lives become less self-oriented as we move into that life. The promise of prayer is that we’ll discover the freedom to listen to God. The discipline of prayer will gather up our lives and transform them.

When his disciples asked him how to pray, Jesus didn’t answer: “Go off to some place quiet until something spiritual comes to mind.” He didn’t even ask them for their particular feelings about God. Rather, he said, pray this way: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

+Scott