BBC 2: Prayer - Introduction

In chapter two, Benson describes the first of the four elements that make up a good life: prayer. I have to confess that I wish in the discussion of these four elements, he made the exploration of prayer the last rather than the first. I think I understand work and community, though I am open to having my understandings of even such commonplace things reformed in the light of Christ. I am also coming to understand rest, different than collapse, and developing rhythms that allow for recovery so that I might live in a sustainable way. But prayer...

Prayer has always been hard for me. There have been seasons in my life as a disciple of Jesus Christ where I have experienced deep intimacy, connection, and even consistency in my prayer life. But more often that has not been my experience. Most of the ways I was trained to pray were more modeled (and as a result "caught") in the context of the evangelical subculture where passionate, ad hoc-conversation style prayer with God was the norm. Perhaps that is why I have only been able to pray with deep intimacy, connection, and consistency episodically. If prayer is communication between a creature and a personal God, then I would imagine (and have experienced) that the way in which we interact is at least as varied as the ways in which my wife and I (or other human beings with whom I am also in personal relationship) communicate.

In my time at the monastery I began to be exposed to liturgical prayer, praying the daily office - gathering together with the monks and other people in the community to pray the Psalms at intervals throughout the day. In this way prayer began to become something more than it had been in the past - less about me and, somehow, more about God and his people. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I am participating in a way of praying that predates and includes and goes beyond the time of Jesus. And maybe it has something to do with the fact that in praying the daily office I am praying the words of scripture, God's own words, back to him in humility. I don't want to go into all the ways in which my understanding of prayer has changed in the last ten years; let it suffice to say that it has, and for the better. In fact if you would like to hear me reflect on this (God help you), you might check out a sermon I preached last year during a Lenten series on spiritual practices: Learning the Rhythms of Prayer.

One more thing I am learning about prayer: I am beginning to believe it is less about what I do and say and more about a posture of being, awareness, and responsiveness that I am either cultivating or not. This way of being is funded primarily by the question, "Where is God active in me, the people around me, and the environment - and what is required in response?"

For Benedictines, prayer is understood to be their primary vocation - their work. From The Rule of Saint Benedict, as quoted by Benson in the epigraph from chapter two:

"We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that in every place the eyes of the Lord are watching the good and the wicked. But beyond the least doubt we should believe this to be especially true when we pray. Let us consider, then, how we ought to behave in the presence of God, and let us offer our prayer in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices."

Some questions to provoke some introductory discussion on prayer: How does prayer figure, or not, in the rule of your life as you are living it now? It is intentional or haphazard? Beyond the normal feelings of guilt that most of us carry for not doing "it" enough, do you experience life as a result of how you interact with God in prayer? Do you have any experience with a more liturgical approach to prayer? How do you cultivate a posture of awareness, engagement, and responsiveness between yourself, God, others, and the environment.

*Remember in all these discussions, we want comments that are honest, simple, sincere - not profound. Of course if you are profound, that is fine; my point is that I don't want someone to stay out of the discussion because they feel like they don't have anything profound to say.

Comments

[Bobby Hopkins]

Well, this book is doing two profound things in my life. First, I am seeing that God and prayer are sadly more a means to an eds in life when I feel out of control. As I begin to experience liturgical prayer, and try to follow a rule for my own life, I feel more in touch with the Kingdom of God work. This realization strikes based on the degree of intimacy and privacy of the four elements. Secondly, everything is coming to a crossroads now as I've tried to reconcile the narrative of God in my life now as compared to 'how'I was taught to be Christian in college and high school. Probably not a good thing, but I've grown out of the guilt feeling that comes with missing a "quiet time" of prayer. So instead of asking how my prayers can tie into what I really want the ends to be in my life. Now, through my current prayer salvation experience I am starting to go into prayer asking, ""Where is God active in me, the people around me, and the environment - and what is required in response?"

[Julene Tegerstrand]

It is a peculiar thing this prayer. Even more peculiar is the way in which I was taught to pray and the way in which the young spirit in me was drawn to pray as a child/adolescent. They couldn’t have been more different.

I remember great Sunday school teachers and summer camp speakers giving me the sure fire formula for prayer. Was it fashioned after the Lord’s Prayer? A.C.T.S. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication (su-pli what?) It was so scientific this way of breaking up the kinds of things we say in prayer yet without mention of the kind of listening that prayer calls us to. I can’t even count the number of “prayer journals” I tried to start over the years. Some people fare well by keeping track of all the prayer requests and how God answers but that has lasted at most only a couple of weeks for me. There were times when I just thought I wasn’t cut out for this prayer stuff. And you know, I’ve come to realize, I’m not. I’m not cut out for the “stuff “ that goes with prayer.

I was a praying child and my sense is that many kids regardless of their faith traditions at home were praying children. As a kid prayer was a conversation with this “Other” I knew but was only beginning to name GOD, Jesus and Holy Spirit. I knew Him, this one we talked to before bed, this one they sang to in “big” church, and this one we heard about in Sunday school. But I knew him even before that. This "One" or "Other" was so present and so near. I'd fall asleep at night knowing this One was right there with me. Some kids had the boogie man and I had the "Other" hiding out in my room.

As a pre-teen I had a paper route. It was and continues to be the greatest organic spiritual practice of my life. Each weekday and each weekend over a period of 3 years I rolled 60 plus newspapers bagged them and delivered them around the neighborhoods on my bicycle. This time was when I came to know God in a deeper way. From outward appearances I was a little girl preparing papers for delivery—how boring-- but on the inside I was a little girl playing with her Father, shooting the breeze, reviewing my day with him, listening to His voice of correction or encouragement…mostly encouragement during those tumultuous days. I’d set off on my bike into the apartment complexes and sometimes got caught “talking to myself”. Embarrassing! Everyday for about 2 hours I’d hang out with this ONE. No one told me I’d meet him there or that I should expect him. He was just there and somehow I recognized God inviting me into a conversation. No one told me, “This would be a great devotional time”. If they did I would have gotten out my notebook of prayers and made sure I was praying in the correct formula! Oh what a huge loss that could have been. The grace of not “knowing” I was praying was the grace of being able pray fully, freely, and in a deeply filling way.

I still experience the guilt of not “praying” in my adult life at times. Like you Tim I’ve not been very “good” at setting out specific times of “prayer”. As I get older I realize I do need this. I find that when I keep regular times of prayer that my whole being is more in tune with what is real. Prayer has taken on a more holistic meaning. While regular times of sitting and speaking and listening with God are needed, I also find that prayer happens when I’m running, walking, or biking. It happens when I with friends, on the bus and in the coffee shop. You know when I notice I don't pray much is when I'm on the internet or watching TV. Whys is that? Often there is this running conversation going on in my head still even as an adult. I’m definitely not always aware of it! Many times I'm not. The challenge for me lately is to do less of the talking and more of the listening! I never thought of myself as the typical chatty girl but when it comes to my speaking with God that is exactly what I am. There is this deep drawing in me lately to let my words be few and let my presence be full. This is no A.C.T.S. kind of prayer! There is no formula or science. And I’ve turned to the monastics too so as to learn more about what my praying heart is longing for.

[Eric Disney]

I can't find a copy of this book and have not been able to "get at" the copies at JW yet, but I did want to comment on the prayer topic in this post. I have always had difficulty in the "discipline" of prayer--that has a negative connotation for me. I do realize that in order to learn any new skill or embrace any new pattern of thought, a certain amount of work, study, or contemplation is necessary, but I so love the concept of the idea of prayer being more of an organic outpouring of my heart to The One who is the world to me. I love the idea, also, of being alert, being present to the constant presence of the Holy Spirit. I do feel that I am "in my own head" a lot and find God often filtering into that space as I perceive and experience the world around me, which to me, seems like a form of prayer or prayer "language". One thing I have discovered recently in a very powerful way is "claiming God's promises" prayers--I've started the Living Waters program as part of Desert Streams Ministries and have experienced prayer[by others] of very forceful, almost demanding prayers directed to God/Jesus/Holy Spirit for the realization of his promises, particularly in relation to healing. Makes me think I need to stand firm on these promises and not adapt my usual squishy, cowering posture. Hmmm.. lots to think about-sorry for the randomness of my thoughts, but that stream of consciousness style is just the way my brain works.

[Annie Noonen]

I think for me this chapter really pushed me to commit to a more scheduled/traditional approach to prayer. Doing the Daily Office three times a day at work can sometimes be a challenge, but it's helped me to make prayer so much less about me and so much more about God and his plans. I love how on the North Umbria Community site, part of the Morning and Evening prayer includes "Prayer for Others". NOT "Prayers for Me". It really removes me from inside myself and helps me to regain my focus on what's going on in God's world. Sometimes I struggle because it feels so much more like His way than mine- but because I trust Him, I trust this. I can't wait to look back on this time and see how He's worked.

[James Van Slyke]

First off, thanks so much Tim for doing this "online" book study. I was reading your blog when you mentioned doing this and thought the book looked really interesting (and needed!) for my life. As I was reading about the bells that signal for a call to prayer, I was really struck with the fact that I have little to no calls for me to be aware of God's presence in most parts of my life besides church. But I have calls to do all other sorts of things, (pick up kids, finish a another writing project, email someone back, send a facebook message). In fact, it was even hard trying to add this book to my life, since most of my work revolves around reading to either prepare a lecture or write an article, more reading seems to just add more pressure. I realized that I kinda missed my summer staff experiences at Colonial. There was a certain rhythm to life involving worship, prayer, learning, eating together, which is hard to match outside of that environment. A lot of contemporary life in American seems bent on steering us towards anything but God, everything seems to be saying, "Buy this!" Watch This!" "Email me back," there doesn't seem to much that says to slow down and become aware, mindful of life and God. So I don't know if I know exactly how to pray, but the starting point seems to be stopping long enough to notice that your not praying or not being aware of the larger reality that is the presence of God. Stopping long enough to be aware of what you are missing and giving up on all of the other things in life that seem so pressing that you simply must act right now! So I'm not sure what the exact content of prayer should be, but for me simply changing my attitude, my mindset towards my life and God seems like an important starting point.

[Tim Keel]

Hey gang - thanks for the feedback/interaction. I am really blessed by your vulnerability, reflections, and stories. In many ways it seems like a number of us are on a similar kind of journey as it relates to the presence and reality of prayer in our lives...

In fact, in a very cool way it seems like this exploration of prayer is bounded in each person's comments by the same threads of grace on one hand and hunger on the other: grace in that there is a great deal of freedom to explore and experience God in new ways; hunger in that we seems to be desirous of something that is more demanding yet simpler than what we have known; grace in that we are seeking be drawn to and to know and connect with God in more aspects of our life; hunger in that our explorations are moving us to encounters that move us through and beyond our own personal needs.

Eric, have you found a book yet? Independent booksellers turn away at this point: Anymore, I turn to Amazon for its stock and convenience. Hoe fully you have gotten ahold of one. I really appreciate your post. I think what you are describing is an incredibly important way of praying. I would designate it in a couple of different ways: intercessory and healing. It is intercessory in that the pray-er is interceding on behalf of someone or something. It is healing prayer in that the pray-er is interceding on behalf of someone in relationship to need and God's provision for that need. I have experienced giving and receiving both intercessory and healing prayer (sometimes, though not always, one-in-the-same). However, I know for me, this specific form of praying at one point became the paradigmatic way of praying. And for me this became a struggle for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I believe that this powerful kind of intercessory and healing prayer is a gift of the Holy Spirit to some within the body of Christ for the benefit of the whole. But most people are not thus gifted and so then decide that prayer is not for them. In some sense then, I think that this is a part of what this prayer discussion is about: what does prayer look like for the rest of us?

In the next post about prayer from chapter two, I want to talk more about the practical aspects of prayer in the way Benson describes it.