Prayer

Someone asked me the other day: “What is happening to our world? It seems the world has lost its way”, which is an interesting observation.

It feels as if the world has erupted. There appears to be chaos around the globe; the spreading of Covid – 19 and the death of an innocent man in the United States. There are protests for freedom, for abolishing the isolation demands, and there are protests for equality, against racism and other social injustices. The protests for justice have gained momentum around the world, like with the climate-change protests.

People are asking for prayer, for support and for guidance in a time of chaos.

But what is prayer? What is prayer to you, to your family and friends, and to your workmates? The Catholic Catechism short answer would be ‘to lift our heart and mind to God’. Or the Anglican Prayer-book, states that prayer is ‘our response to God’s love’.

I would say that prayer is communication with God. And all of that doesn’t mean an awful lot to most people. You see, we all have our image of God, our own ideas and concepts of what prayer is, and how it works, or even who God is and how God responds.

And when we pray, what do we hope for?

If we stay with prayer is ‘communication with God’, how does that work? Who is the God to whom we pray? Is it the God who is dwelling within us? Or are we praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Moses? Are we expecting a world-changing response, or merely comforting ourselves? Depending on whom you have this chat with, you will get different answers.

We are all invited to pray, Jesus prayed, the prophets prayed, and so do we, to make sense of our lives in an ever-changing world challenged by events we cannot control.

 I believe prayer is our response to the transcendent God, the Supreme Other, and it comforts me to be able to share my anguish, anger and frustrations as well as my love and hope with God. Praying gives meaning to what I do, affects the choices I make in life. To pray for healing and hope helps the person who prays and those for whom they pray. I think it is an essential part of being a community and gaining wholeness.

Prayer is essential – to me, as it gives meaning to my life, it structures my day and gives hope in times of struggle and delight when I am at the beach, with sand between my toes and water splashing up against my – never high enough rolled-trousers. Prayer is how I communicate with the wisdom and love I call God.