This piece, contributed by the Rev’d Davidson Morse, Rector, is the first in a series of lenten meditations authored by the pastors and clergy of All Saints.
Our evening’s topic is the Christian discipline of personal, private prayer. This is different from corporate, public, and in the case of Anglicanism, liturgical prayer. This is not to say that the necessary attitude, or disposition of the soul should be any different between personal and corporate prayer. Whether alone or together with our Christian brothers or sisters, the attitude of prayer must be intentionally directed and aware of the presence of our heavenly Father, through the intercession of the Son, by the animating power of the Holy Spirit. The whole event of prayer is dependent upon the God who is revealed to us as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who desires to be known, to be loved, and to be joined in eternal communion. While it is always the case that we come to pray as sinners, seeking mercy and grace, our fundamental attitude, our animating conviction must always be that the true God is the one who desires to hear the prayers of his people. Prayer, then, is the organic or native activity of the beloved child who comes to the parent asking for what the parent has already promised to give. Our confidence to pray, and our boldness to come into the divine presence, depend entirely upon the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who have invited us to come, to ask, and to worship. So, it is God himself, the object of our prayers, who is the one who makes it possible for us to pray, and invites us to do so.
But once we have set our minds and hearts to pray, how do we go about it? The disciples themselves, all good Jews and practiced in the devotions of synagogue and temple, asked Jesus this same question, ‘Teach us how to pray!’ And Jesus responded with what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. This single prayer has become the model for Christians for 2000 years, not just because it came from the lips of Jesus ‘the Lord’, but because it contains within it the whole of the spirit of Christian prayer. That is important to emphasize from the outset. NT Wright says that the Lord’s Prayer is a Christian prayer even though it doesn’t mention Jesus or the Holy Spirit within it. The disciples had been traveling with Jesus and seen what he had been doing and heard his kingdom message. It had become evident to them that Jesus was claiming that he was doing a new thing, that the time had come for Israel’s God to relieve his people from their enemies and to renew Israel as the prophets had promised. This was the reason that they asked him to teach them how to pray. This prayer was Jesus shaped from the beginning because it reflected the things that they saw Jesus doing to bring in the kingdom of God.
So, it is a Jesus shaped prayer. But what does the prayer contain? Jesus prays that God show himself to be holy. He asks that God reveal his kingdom on earth as it already exists in heaven. Jesus asks that the Father give him what he needs to do the work of the kingdom. While Jesus himself didn’t need to be forgiven his sins, his whole earthly ministry launched the forgiveness of our broken world. Anyone who had been forgiven their sins would be invited to join in the great forgiveness movement that he was launching in his own ministry. Jesus prayed that the cup of torment would pass from his lips, confident that his heavenly Father would be with him as the evil one attempted to destroy him. Jesus said to his disciples should pray in this way, as he had lived, and died, and rose again. Consequently, we pray that God’s name, his person, would be glorified by all people. We pray that we would be kingdom people, devoting ourselves to serving the Father here on earth the way the angels already do in heaven. We pray that the Father will fill us with bread, meeting our physical needs, always remembering that we cannot live only by bread, but by the word of God guiding and directing us. Forgiveness, the virtue that CS Lewis said was the hardest of all, sits at the very center of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. In another place Jesus said that anyone who refused to forgive would not be forgiven. It’s just that important. And finally, we ask that God would protect us from the real, physical and spiritual, dangers that surround us each and every moment.
And Jesus wasn’t the only one who had disciples asking him how to pray. St. Augustine’s longest work on the topic of prayer was a letter sent to a wealthy widow who had founded a convent in Carthage. This community of holy widows wanted Augustine to instruct them how to pray. He replied, ‘To use much speaking in prayer is to employ an abundance of words in asking a necessary thing; but to prolong prayer is to have the heart throbbing with continued pious emotion towards Him to whom we pray. For in most cases prayer consists more in groaning than in speaking, in tears rather than in words. But He sets our tears in His sight, and our groaning is not hidden from Him who made all things by the word, and does not need human words.’ Notice how Augustine places the emphasis on the orientation of the heart’s desire above the form or number of words contained in the prayer. God already knows what we need before we ask. God’s posture toward us is not somehow conjured by fine rhetoric nor is he forced to surrender to the one who badgers him into relenting. Augustine says that prayer mostly consists of ‘groaning rather than speaking’, ‘tears rather than words’. This isn’t to say that we only pray when we are tired, sick or afraid. Indeed, we are expected to come into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. But the virtue or worthiness of the prayer is in the desire of the heart for God. That he be glorified. That his will be done on earth as in heaven. That each of our needs be wrapped up in the great redemption of the world from the powers of darkness and death.
I conclude as St. Augustine concludes his letter to the holy widow, ‘Faith, hope, and charity, therefore, lead unto God the man who prays, i.e. who believes, hopes, and desires, and is guided as to what he should ask from the Lord by studying the Lord’s Prayer.’ The disciples asked Jesus how they should pray, and his answer was to pray according to his life, death and resurrection. To study and pray according to the prayer Jesus gave is to seek the greatest good, the greatest happiness, in the human life: to be remade in the image of the Savior. This is the beginning and the end of all Christian prayer. It is the beginning of life that will never end. It is seeking to be embraced by divine love.
