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Praying with words
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
First Week of Lent
Matthew 6:7-8
Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
We need words if we’re going to pray together. And we need to pray together. So we need words. The words might be written and traditional, said for hundreds of years. Or they might be composed spontaneously by one or more of us as we pray together.
And Jesus is not telling me to dispense with words when I pray alone, either. Not necessarily. When words guide my heart toward God, use them! And when they are empty or demanding, stop using them!
But there is a limitation to even heartfelt, familiar conversation with God. Leonard Boase in The Prayer of Faith reminds me that this “tends inevitably to bring our thoughts back upon ourselves and teaches us little about God himself.”
I recognize that this is true. So what do I do? Jesus tells us to say what we’ve called “The Lord’s Prayer.” Our Father, who art in heaven … Some of us also pray in tongues. Or we might use what can be called a breath prayer, a devotional phrase or sentence that we repeat over and over.
One breath prayer was made “famous” by J.D. Salinger in Franny and Zooey, and has been practiced for hundreds of years by Orthodox Christians. “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
The Rosary is another, prayed decade after decade since 1214: “Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee …”
Because we are steeped in the idea that our value is primarily individual rather than corporate, we regularly forget that when we pray, we pray with the whole Church. When I glimpse a vision of something greater than myself, I can give credit to the fact that I’m not praying alone, and God exists far beyond my own imagination, my own needs, and my own self.
However I pray, with whatever words, alone or with others, using lists or rituals, there is God. I might feel like I’m in the valley at times. Mostly I’m on the hillside, climbing up. Occasionally I am on the ridge, looking out and seeing all there is. Always there is God, and there I am with God.
Lord, I notice the flowers and the feel of grass underneath my feet. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Open my eyes to the beauty of your hillside, Lord, even before I reach the top. There is nothing for me to do but open my eyes.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1439
