Posted: August 9, 2020 • Posted in: Discussions
Prayer – A discussion
Prayer – A discussion
‘Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit and from thy own thoughts’ George Fox
On Friday 24th July our Zoom MFW was followed by a discussion on Prayer led by our Friend Mike. What follows is not an attempt at a summary but more of a tribute to those who took part whose insights gave us such rich food for thought.
Mike encouraged us to think reflect on the following questions:
- What is prayer?
- What does prayer mean to you?
- Do you pray? If so what do you think is going on?
- I will hold you in my prayers. What does this mean?
Many of us have difficulty moving away from childhood notions of prayer as supplication – asking God to do something for us Over time we realise that this practice can lead to disappointment! One friend drew out attention to the danger of having set expectations described by ‘The Prophet’ by Kahil Gibran.
‘For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking, you shall not receive. And if you enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted: Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others, you shall not be heard. It is enough that you enter the temple invisible’
Our discussion showed us that there are different ways to ‘enter the temple’. It may be through worship, either with Quakers or within a different tradition. But it may also through prose, poetry, music, contact with nature or art – indeed anything that enables us to make a connection beyond ourselves. Prayer is a doorway, an opening that takes us out of our everyday selves. It leads us to a different realm of some kind, a communion with God, with the divine. And if you set out with a shopping list or a goal, you will not even get a glimpse through the doorway. Isaac Pennington put it this way:
‘Give over thine own willing, give over thy own running, give over thine own desiring to know or be anything and sink down to the seed which God sows in the heart , and let that grow in thee and be in thee and act in thee..’
(Quaker Faith and Practice 26.70)
This requires an act of faith and it requires practice. Some Friends shared the regular discipline which they have evolved – be it sitting in stillness, reflecting on familiar texts or silently opening and offering oneself to God. Call it meditation, contemplation or prayer it is a similar practice. As some Friends pointed out, this does not mean that traditional prayer, ritual or liturgy cannot serve the same purpose.
What they have in common is a ‘letting-go’ of the problems and perplexities with which the mind is occupied’ and an opening up to love. ‘Prayer is not words or acts, but reaching down to love: holding our fellows in love, offering ourselves in love; being caught up in love’. It is communion, an opening of the door, an entry from the beyond’ (Quaker Faith and Practice 2.23)
In exploring our ‘prayer’ life perhaps we are all held back by the stereotypes and prejudices of our previous experiences. Perhaps we even struggle with relating our own practice to the word ‘prayer’. By recognising this we can free ourselves up to find our own way to ‘enter the temple invisible’.
The last word goes to Thomas Merton
‘We should not look for a “method” or “system” but cultivate an “attitude”, an “outlook”: faith, openness, attention, reverence, expectation, supplication, trust, joy. All these permeate our being with love in so far as our living faith tells us we are in the presence of God.’
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