Thursday, July 18, 2013

Prayer is attuning yourself to the life of the world


Prayer is not sending in an order and expecting it to be fulfilled. Prayer is attuning yourself to the life of the world, to love, the force that moves the sun and the moon and the stars. We can close our hearts to that Tao of the universe, and because we so often do, alienation and lack of peace tear the world apart. But to the extent that we attune ourselves to the flow of life, to our life breath, our lives can become peaceful even in an alienated and torn world. To that extent, the world also becomes more peaceful. God works with us and in us. Also, as I noted before, it’s not what our prayers do to God, but how we ourselves are changed by encountering God in prayer.
Steindl-Rast, Brother David; Lebell, Sharon (2009-05-01). Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey Through the Hours of the Day (p. 75). Ulysses Press. Kindle Edition.

4 comments:

  1. thankyou Beth
    for you posting
    prayer is certainty a process of
    for psychology development but i think it is
    much misunderstood and is not thought as a method
    for personal development but as a way to get what a person wants
    the misconceptions about prayer can be a damaging -
    thankyou

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  2. In my own life, I've had to sort of grow into a larger understanding of prayer, and yet it has remained personal as well. About all I can say at this point is: prayer IS. Probably as many manifestations of prayer as there are people praying (which is each and all of us).

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  3. But I also cringe when I hear certain kinds of petitionary prayer, as if God is Santa Claus. - "sending in an order and expecting it to be filled".

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