Day 2 - Issue 26
Psalm 27:8 NLT
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
So St Cuthbert’s Oratory is a home of prayer, but what does that mean? I think prayer is like the elusive bar of soap in the bath. No sooner has one a hand upon it, than it slips away and the next two minutes are spent seeking to trap it again. Not that prayer is of itself elusive, yet finding something that I can practise regularly and comfortably accept as my prayer life is the challenge.
Ruth Burrows, a Carmelite nun, known for her insightful writings on prayer, speaks of ‘Lights On’ and ‘Lights Off’ prayer. ‘Lights On’ she describes as those moments when we encounter what seems the very essence of the divine. Our hearts are uplifted and we simply know and bask in God’s love and affirmation. ‘Lights Off’ prayer, on the other hand, is when we sense no direct, conscious God connection. Now we are sustained by our faith alone, and lean upon the teachings of scripture and the Church. This captures the prayer journey in a very simple way. Indeed, ‘Lights Off’ requires resilience and perseverance, yet prayer is primarily about God and not for my satisfaction.
Therefore, we make our way to God in prayer daily, regardless of our feelings or any sense of God’s immanence. We maintain the long historic practice of the Church in acknowledging God’s presence and presenting our praise, confession and requests. Since God promises that he will not fail us or forsake us, we can rest assured that God is working within us regardless of what our feelings tell us. Indeed, feelings are a poor basis upon which to measure anything. If love for my spouse or my child was built upon feelings, neither relationship would probably remain intact today. Love, while so often presented as desire alone, has to be rooted in commitment or it will evaporate as surely as any desire.
Prayer is quite simply God’s work, not ours. We surrender to prayer, pay attention and do our best. Prayer does not require tokens or signs of God’s apparent favour. Prayer is always essentially God’s business, and so we cannot fail at prayer, however unsatisfactory we find the experience.
QUESTION: Have you experienced unsatisfactory prayer times?
PRAYER: Father, please teach me the habit of prayer.
