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Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Sunday, October 21, 2018

thoughts on prayer


“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
 Mahatma Gandhi

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”
 Soren Kierkegaard
______________________________

Prayer is not the “art of the deal”
It is not a matter of us calling out to all that is Sacred
Seeking to manipulate
Whatever power might be there
To do our will

Jesus made it pretty clear
That God is God
Sacred is Sacred

“Thy will be done”

Paul suggests that when it comes to prayer
We suck

Really!

Not because we cannot mouth the words
Not because we cannot turn a phrase
But because we have no clue how to pray (Romans 8)

Instead he suggests that we let the Sacred in us, the Spirit
Pray for us
With “wordless groans”

When prayer is really prayer it is nothing more (or less)
Than a cry of the heart
Prayer happens when God awakens in us the longing to connect
The desire to be filled
The hope for healing, and forgiveness

Prayer is when those things we cannot put into words
Wing their way toward the Sacred
And when the love of the Sacred finds its way back
Along the bridge of prayer

To change our minds
Our hearts
Our souls
And we are made new

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