Sometimes there are no words

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes[a] with sighs too deep for words.

          Romans 8:26

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sometimes there are no words

the pain is so great we cannot adequately express

what can only be told through tears

and sometimes through acts of desperation

 

the love is so great

no gesture is grand enough to express

the fullness of what is in our heart

 

the need is so great that though we long

to ask for help

the words do not come

 

what do we do with these cries of the heart?

these silent screams

these unspoken longings and joy?

 

these, some would say are times for prayer

 

but how do we pray?

what is prayer?

 

is it carefully crafted phrases

penned with eloquence

words that lift and inspire?

 

Yes!

 

I am right with there with those who want to

“write prayers like pomegranates, fat and seedy, the color of blood,

tangy and sweet, replete with mystery”  (Jan Richardson, The Way of Wisdom, p.63)

 

but too often my fingers falter,

and the words do not come

only tired phrases that seem dead and dry as dust

 

is prayer words spoken

uttered with fervency,

our deepest hurt and joy offered

from our lips to God?

 

yes!

 

and yet too often it feels as if the words

disappear into thin air

never to return

lost

 

perhaps the best prayers come

when we are wordless

when everything, the pain, the joy

are beyond words.

 

when I am in that place,

when silenced,

the Word comes and speaks to chaos and void

a form comes

and light too

 

and the words

the very sighs of the sacred

become my prayers

and the answers too