Dear Friend,

Have you ever thought what a wonderful thing it is to pray?

So often when people talk about prayer it sounds like a chore, or a duty, or one of those things that we know we ought to do, but find ever so difficult. It is sad how few people talk about it as a joy, a privilege and a delight.

So often we get bogged down by the theology of prayer. Because we feel that we can’t understand it, we feel that we can’t do it. And yet that’s a bit like the delightful fact that bumblebees are aerodynamically thoroughly unsound – but nobody told them, so they simply get on with flying.

Prayer has been one of the pivots of Christian Spirituality since Jesus. Jesus prayed and taught his disciples to pray. Every generation of Christians has founded its life and growth on prayer. We should pray. And it should become as natural for us as breathing; indeed it is spiritual breathing.

We should not worry too much about the mechanics of prayer; we should rest on the experience of generations of praying Christians that it works, and like bumblebees, get on with it.

In the simplest of terms, what are we doing when we pray? In the marvellous words of the American Catechism, we are responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words. We are being ourselves in the presence of our loving Father. We are opening ourselves to Him, just as we are, and sharing with Him our joys and our sorrows, our hopes and our fears, and our concerns for others.

When I think of prayer a whole series of pictures comes to my mind. In prayer I am like a piano string and God is like the tuner, making me in tune with Him and with all the other strings in His piano. In prayer I am like a soldier waiting to receive my orders for the day. In prayer I am like a sick person going to the doctor for healing. In prayer I am like the lover basking in the inexpressible joy of love with his beloved. In prayer I am like a member of a family loving, comforting and caring for another who is sick or troubled. In prayer I am like a power cable carrying and passing on God’s love and power.

At the heart of prayer is love. Love is really what it is about. It is in prayer that we really discover God’s love for us. It is in prayer that we discover his loving will for us. It is in prayer that we reach out in love for each other. It is through prayer that we set this love free in the world.

Prayer isn’t magic, and it isn’t a Jim’ll Fix It exercise. Prayer is, in the fullest sense of the word, realising, (making real through doing it), our relationship with God; and within this relationship, prayer is one of the ways in which we express and build up our relationship with each other.

At home we are constantly talking with each other, sharing things together, and sharing concerns about each other. In words and actions we are building an ever stronger and deeper relationship. More than that, we are meeting, dealing with, and overcoming, the various events and problems that happen to us. This is exactly what prayer is about.

Prayer is the conversation, the family chatter, of the family of God. Prayer is not the prerogative of experts or the religious. Prayer is the joy and privilege of every member of God’s family … and that includes you and me.

And do remember, real prayer does not mean saying prayers, although at times formal prayers can be a real help. Real prayer means discovering and responding spontaneously to the simple and joyous fact that God loves us, is interested in us and all our doings, and wants us to help Him in enriching our own and other peoples’ lives.

In short: prayer embraces every dimension of our love affair with God, and His with us. It should be as joyful, as deep, as free, as intimate and as personal as any human love affair, but it will go infinitely deeper and further. It will go deeper and further because in prayer we meet the Lord of all creation who is also our heavenly Father face to face. What an amazing thought.

Rev’d David R Moore Vicar St Andrew Ham Diocese of Southwark, UK

Peter Lear kindly granted permission to reprint this, from his posting to newsgroup, uk.religion.christian, on 9/29/98.