Reflection

Reflections about prayer

I think a good number of Christians do not actually pray to the God of Jesus Christ, but to Zeus. Not that they are intending to pray to this pagan Greek god; it is just that their approach to prayer leads me to conclude that some people believe in a Zeus-like God. Though he could be loving and kind, he was more famous for being moody and unpredictable. One of the lessons lesser gods and mortals learned quickly was that if you wanted a good deal out of life, then you had to stay on Zeus’ good side. As with all the Greek gods, sacrifice and prayer were the usual offerings. I believe all the sacrifices and prayers in the world cannot change the God of Jesus because that is the way God wants it. So, what does our petitionary prayer do? Why bother praying to a God who does not change? When we pray, we are asking our holy, and unchanging God to change us, and thereby change the world.

Richard Leonard

The word ‘prayer’ has often been trivialized by making it merely into a way of asking for what you want or making announcements to God, as if God did not know (see Matthew 6:7- 8). But I use ‘prayer’ to mean any interior journey or practice that allows you to experience faith, hope, and love within yourself. It is not a technique for getting things, a pious exercise that somehow makes God happy, or a requirement for entry into heaven. Prayer is much more practising heaven now.

Richard Rohr

Prayer confronts us with ourselves and measures the distance between who and what we are and who and what Jesus is…. Being immersed in prayer, really immersed in prayer, sears our souls. It forces us to see how far from our own ideals we stand. It challenges the images of goodness and piety and integrity we project. It confronts us with what it really means to live a good life. It requires courage of us rather than simply piety. It says again and again, “Come, follow me.”

Joan Chittister

Private or individualistic prayer is no prayer at all, in fact it is not possible, because prayer is precisely plugging into a shared field of knowing, feeling, and loving. St. John Cassian called any attempt at ‘private prayer’, pax perniciosa – dangerous peace, because it keeps us feeling separate and superior instead of connected and compassionate.

Richard Rohr

It is not I who wanted prayer. It is he who wanted it. It is not I who have looked for him. It is he who has looked for me first. My seeking him would have been in vain if before all time he had not sought me. The hope on which my prayer rests is in the fact that it is he who wants it. And if I go to keep the appointment it is because he is already there waiting for me.

Carlo Carretto

If the only prayer you ever say in your life is “thank you”, it will be enough.

Meister Eckhardt