Why do we pray?

In some ways, this seems to beg the question because those of us who have reached our 'golden years' were brought up in an era when prayer was part of everyday life.

I remember the time when New Zealand shut down on a Sunday so people could go to Church. Religion was much more central to our way of life. The secular State School I attended, for example, began the daily assembly with a short religious service. It included hymns, bible reading and some pointed advice on how we should behave, and prayers. Prayer was embedded within our NZ culture – even parliament opened its day's business with a prayer for the House and still does. Although the wording has altered over the years.

Prayer used to be part of our way of life. We see this reflected in popular music. Take, for example, Aretha Franklin's I Say a Little Prayer (1968); Madonna's ·Like a Prayer (1989); Bette Midler's From A Distance (1990); Lady Gaga's Sinner's Prayer (2016). Songs such as Amazing Grace by John Newton (1779); How Great Thou Art by Carl Boberg (1885), or Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens (1971) have become part of our cultural psyche.

But this doesn't answer my question, 'Why do we pray? If prayer is about us trying to inform the Almighty of our needs or give us something we want – then I think we need to rethink the question. I know my mind is full of many thoughts and wishes of what I would like to occur in my life – or in the lives of others. Thankfully, they remain unanswered! I know the Bible is full of stories that give the impression that God is a kind of universal Santa Claus.

A person whose wisdom I value is Teresa of Avila. She was a Spanish noblewoman who became a very wise and astute Carmelite nun, reformer and mystic. She declared,

Mental prayer, in my opinion, is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends;
it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him, whom we know loves us.1

God became alive and real for her. She encouraged her sisters to remain in God's presence as they went about their daily duties by speaking to God as one would to a familiar friend. Teresa knew of no quicker way to foster a sense of God's presence. She wrote:

In the activity of prayer, I find my life touched, sustained, opened,
and redeemed by that holy presence that my life of prayer seeks,
a presence so intensely personal that only personal words
can be for me appropriately employed when I speak of it.

To explore this inner landscape of our being it is helpful, if not essential, to have a guide. At the moment, I am using a book by Megan Don, Meditations with Teresa of Avila: A Journey into the Sacred (previously published as Falling Into the Arms of God). She makes the evocative comment that Teresa strongly dislikes repetitive prayers and voiced her displeasure at this religious ritual. Instead, Teresa encouraged us to use our thoughts and feelings rather than utter words out of habit or hope. In this sense prayer involves what Teresa refered to as “an expansiveness of spirit and mind” and we are all born with this “infinite capacity”.

In many ways, the spiritual life has parallels with falling in love with another person. While it may begin with an initial infatuation – based on a projection of our own needs, desires and wants. To learn to love someone deeply requires loving them for who they are and allow our minds to dwell upon them. And more importantly, the willingness and commitment to spend time with them, and in the process to let our lives to be transformed by the one we love.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

_________

1Carmelite Monastery, Teresian Prayer, http://heartsawake.org/spirituality/teresian-prayer1/

2. Don, Megan, Meditations with Teresa of Avila – A Journey into the Sacred. New World Library (March 1, 2011)