Prayer

This past week was my daughter Adelaide’s birthday. Having just written on votive candles, something struck me as I watched my child both light candles at the stand, say a prayer, and later in the day, blow out candles on a birthday cake and make a wish. I think it is odd that we invoke some unknown genie to grant our wishes as we blow out candles. You may say, “Father, you are being a curmudgeon; the wish is, of course, a request to God.” Fair enough, but are we just treating God like a genie? I fear that we approach prayer too much like a birthday wish. Or, at least, that is the irksome feeling that I have creeping up my spine, because I know that sometimes my prayers sound too much like a birthday wish.

What is prayer, and what is its purpose? Prayer means to ask or entreat. Reading old English tales or Shakespeare, you might have come across the word “prithee”, which is a conjunction of “pray thee”, meaning to ask of someone. So, is that it? Is prayer just an entreaty to God, asking him to do something for us like a genie? Of course not. Now, indeed, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”, but God owes us nothing. Therefore, the purpose of prayer is not to try to convince God to give us something. God is not fickle or variable, to not know what is best for you, and be convinced by our blubbering and blabbering argument. If we are going to know what prayer is and what its purpose is, we must consider to whom we are making our request.

In prayer, we come before the holy God. The God whose presence shone on the face of Moses and made the Israelites afraid (Exodus 34). This is the God whom no person can look at and live (Exodus 33). The God who resided on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies and, according to later Jewish writings, the high priest had to wear a rope on his ankle so he could be pulled out if God decided to strike him dead. This is the same Ark of the Covenant that, when falling, a priest reached out to stop it, and was struck dead because no one was supposed to touch the ark itself (2 Samuel 6). To better illustrate my point, C.S. Lewis captures this well in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” when Mr. Beaver explains to Lucy that Aslan is not tame or safe, but he is good.

Prayer is made possible not by our actions or based on our own merit. Prayer is possible because of Christ. In the Old Testament, the Israelites related to God within the parameters of their relationship to God. God had called them to be a nation of priests, but due to their disobedience, they were made a nation with priests. However, in Christ Jesus, we have a High Priest who is sinless and eternal and can sympathize with our weakness. It is because of who Christ is as both Man and God, standing in the presence of the Father offering his prayer, that we can pray. Therefore, let us “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." In prayer, we enter into the eternal exchange of love between Father, Son, and Spirit. We pray because the Spirit draws us into the Son’s own prayer to the Father. This means prayer is not primarily something we initiate; it is God inviting us into God’s own life. Prayer is, at its core, relational.

Relationships are not one-way. Though people can ask something of someone else, it does not happen in a vacuum but within the context of the relationship. Soren Kierkegaard once said that the purpose of prayer is not to change the mind of God but to change the one who prays. In prayer, we are brought into the divine triune relationship whereby we are changed. Our wills are formed to the will of God, hopefully. That doesn’t mean that you can’t ever ask anything of God; of course, we can. Because we are brought into a relationship with God, prayer is a two-way conversation. However, you most likely won't hear an audible voice respond. God often responds in our contemplation. Contemplation is necessary because it aligns the human heart with divine revelation. Contemplation is not passive; it is a receptive attentiveness to God’s self-disclosure in Scripture, liturgy, and the world. So, when you pray, don't stop at the request. Enter into the relationship, the conversation, through contemplation. It is as we contemplate and engage the world around us with eyes looking for God’s response, when we open Scripture and are eager to hear what God has to say to us, and participate and hear God’s ultimate response to us in the liturgy, that we will hear him answer.

Though your prayers and contemplation may be in secret, prayer is never merely private. Prayer participates in the life and liturgy of the Church. As the Church is the body of Christ, and it is in Christ that our prayers are offered before the Father, so our prayers participate in the ongoing conversation of the Church to the Father beyond space and time.

As we pray, let us keep in mind who God is and the boldness we have in Christ. There will be times when our spontaneous prayers sound like a birthday wish; that's just the reality of it. However, rather than treating God like a genie and waiting to see if our prayer is granted, I hope we enter into the relationship and seek to hear his voice and be changed.

You are in my prayers,

Fr. Aaron