Whether we address a personal God, a divine presence or entity, or if we are more agnostic and less literal and simply acknowledge that there is something ultimate and central to us which we can access through reflection and contemplation, our prayer life is that which speaks most clearly of faith – this is one of my favourite prayers, its by Kadya Molodowski who was a Jewish poet writing in the 1920’s

I still don’t know to whom
I still don’t know for what I pray
A prayer lies bound in me
and pleads for a god
and pleads for a name
I pray in the field
In the noise in the street
together with the wind when it
runs in front of me
A prayer lies bound in me
and pleads for a god
and pleads for a name

Kadya Molodowski

It is customary to us to conclude prayers by saying Amen. Amen, is probably from ancient Aramaic perhaps transposed into Hebrew and its difficult to translate accurately its intention but to me its a statement of faith, it says:  ‘True fact’. The words true and trust are linked, as are the words trust and faith. We have faith instead of belief when we rise out of opinion, or knowledge and pass instead into confidence – trust. Faith in God is not belief but confidence.

‘Incline your ear’ or Listen prayerfully as I read this prayer by Christine Sine

Lord let us learn to walk in the dark
In the places light is dim
And we cannot see
but must move slowly to not stumble.
Lord let us learn to walk in the dark
Attentive
to touch and sound and smell
let us cherish
the intimacy of your inner voice,
the gentle love of your presence
Lord let us learn
to walk in the dark,
Where each step needs trust
and it takes faith to move.
Let us learn to see
the inner glow of your light,
behind us before us around,
Inside us.

When we pray, in silence or aloud , alone or in company, we drop out of this present everyday world and join a great fellowship of others who are at that moment – this present moment praying. Just as we signal our membership of the Christian family of churches when we say the prayer of Jesus, so when we pray we signal our membership of the human family of faith

 

Love
I have loved Thee with two loves –
a selfish love and a love that is worthy of Thee.
As for the love which is selfish,
Therein I occupy myself with Thee,
to the exclusion of all others.
But in the love which is worthy of Thee,
Thou dost raise the veil that I may see Thee.
Yet is the praise not mine in this or that,
But the praise is to Thee in both that and this.
Rabia al Basri

But in the love which is worthy of Thee,
Thou dost raise the veil that I may see Thee.

Rabia al Basri here refers to the truth of the vision of God – that God is seen in others, in all creation, if we can but lift the veil from God’s face.

Prayer may be our closest connection to creation, our way of being in God

And prayer might  cause us to lose our humility, as religious people  so often seem to do, to become convinced that we know what God intends or that we are in some way uniquely gifted with God’s wisdom or love, that God is on our side.

Jesus cuts through this in the passage Arek read to us which is central to our religious life. (Luke 18 9-14)

Last week i said
And yet I believe that our understanding of God is such that God comes to us in our brokenness, in our failures and broken promises – in our humility not our pride.

Our spiritual life like our prayer life, actually like our whole life is always prone to disruption and failure. it is not success that commends us but persistence despite lack of success.

For our way of prayer to be meaningful, to be sincere, it must acknowledge our brokenness (or sinfulness), have mercy on me for I am broken.

This month of resilience, like this period of Lent is a remembrance of our time of deepest need, our wilderness. Our prayer is our statement of faith that this too shall pass and in the words of a famous and perhaps my favourite prayer;  by Julian of Norwich and the forth prayer by a woman in this address –

All is well

and all is well

and all manner of thing shall be well.

 

(I’m grateful to my friend John Heyderman for many of the prayers here quoted)