I read a book long ago that compared the prayer/God connection to an experience with water. My now-distant summarization — prayer dissolves you into being part of something larger. It moves through and around, fast or still, violent or calm in any moment, but lets you become one with what is pervasive and life sustaining.
The illustration embedded here is clever and accurate if one adheres to a vending machine metaphor for prayer. I like Dear Sugar’s take on that kind of spirituality.
“God as a possibly non-existent spirit man who may or may not hear your prayers and may or may not swoop in to save your ass when the going gets rough is a losing prospect.” –Dear Sugar
I like these ideas of prayer much better:
Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The fewer the words, the better the prayer. – Martin Luther
I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent. – Henry Ward Beecher
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. – Soren Kierkegaard
Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. – Mahatma Gandhi
Last two comments = brilliant!
I especially like the third sentence of Rocky’s well wishes. I’m gonna use that!
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. -Meister Eckhart
You two. Cracking me up.
How about:
I’m holding you in the light.
I’m thinking of you often.
I’m sending thoughts of hope and peace.
– “My Grandmother is in hospice and only has a few days to live.”
– “Good luck with that.”
Seems a little glib. But I do agree that mine is too clinical.
How about, “Yeah, well, we all have problems…give it a rest.”
That’s always the problem I have. I don’t like to use Christian language because I don’t want people to misunderstand what I mean.
So that’s why I just like to stick with atheistic language. It makes my message clearer.
But then again, it is sort of unfair that religious people get better words.
“I’m praying for you” sounds so much better than “I’m commiserating with you and am empathetic to your situation”.
The second one makes you sound like Mr. Spock. On the other hand, the first one makes you sound like Michele Bachmann.
Maybe you should just say, “Good luck with that.”
The Kierkegaard quote gets my vote. Prayer is meditation. The whole idea of The Secret, which has been described to me as believing you deserve that which you want and it will be yours, works in a way. Only, when one prays in a way that one’s hear and mind is aligned with the universe, one’s desires change radically. So the whole praying for a pink Cadillac doesn’t really fit the paradigm. My best prayers are prayers of gratitude which do, indeed, change me, not god.
I’ve recently been debating with Diane as to whether or not one can say “I’m praying for you” when what one (me) truly means is,
“I’m commiserating with you and am empathetic to your situation”. Is that acceptable shorthand for an atheist in a very theistic country?
That’s a nice post.
It take a little time to sink in. Which is a little like prayer in itself.