Monday, June 28
Ch. 9-How Prayer Nourishes Spirituality
Thanks for the many responses. They will result in an interactive book. Part II of the book deals with nourishing Christian spirituality through the church (ch. 5), worship (ch. 6), the Word (ch. 7), Eucharist (ch. 8), prayer (ch. 9), and the disciplines (ch. 10). Each chapter deals with (1) the current crises. (2) The ancient understanding and practice. (3) Nourishing baptismal identity (union with Christ), and (4) Nourishing the baptismal pattern of spirituality (dying and rising).
Don't try to comment on the whole chapter. Concentrate on one or two aspects of the chapter, especially where you have an observation or example. Thanks!
Ch. 9-How Prayer Nourishes Spirituality Monday, June 28
A. Crisis of Prayer There is a crisis of not knowing how to pray or what to pray or even where to pray. We are primarily acquainted with models of prayer that don't seem to work for us. Therefore many of us have quit praying, or at least we think we have. Unfortunately there is a crisis of not knowing how to hear God or what to listen to God for. This crisis of listening derives from a crisis of not being open to God or even knowing how to be open. We are plagued by a fear of silence before God and an ignorance of how God communicates to us in silence. We mistrust the voice of silence. We fear conversing with God. We don't know how to converse with God or what to do with conversation should it emerge. Because we don't know how God initiates prayer, we look to self to generate prayer. We are not certain how the Spirit prays within us, how to pray in the communion of saints, or how to pray prayers written by others and make them our own. We know our prayer life is feeble but we don't want to admit it, so we just go on pretending.
B. What do we learn about prayer from the ancient church? The early church is rich not only with ways of prayer, but with sources of prayer as well. From the Fathers we can learn how to get past the fear of praying and how to go beyond the models of prayer that no longer seem to work for us. They teach us not only how to pray within worship, but also how to "pray continuously." They teach us how to pray with creation, with Scripture, with Jesus, with the church and the communion of saints, and with icons. They take us into the "desert of our spirituality" and show us how to battle with the oppressive powers of the world, the flesh, and the devil; how to plant the seeds of a transformed life in the midst of the wasteland; how to enter into union with Jesus and through him communion with the triune God.
C. How does prayer nourish our baptismal identity? Personhood finds its meaning and identity in community. Even as God is "person" in the community of the triune Godhead, so our true Christian identity is established through prayer that brings us into the community of the Godhead. Prayer is not so much "to" as it is "with." The Holy Spirit prays "with" us even as we pray "with" the Holy Spirit. As we pray with the Spirit, our identity with Jesus and through him with the Father is affirmed in a mystical way.
D. How does prayer nourish the pattern of living into death and resurrection? Prayer as meditation takes us into the deepest part of ourselves. Here we reflect on who we are as fallen creatures in rebellion against our Creator. Honest meditation exposes our particular way of being sinful and calls forth the new person we are in Christ. Prayer nourishes us because it is a way of knowing. Prayer is a union with God where the heart is linked with the Spirit of God so that the Spirit of God prays within us and calls forth the new person. The prayer of the heart becomes unceasing and is a source of peace and joy.
What do you think? Please interact with me. Do you have a comment, a story, a disagreement? Let me know. Write me at:rwebber@northern.seminary.edu
Bob Webber
Myers Professor of Ministry
Director of M.A. in Worship and Spirituality
Northern Seminary—www.seminary.edu
(See Northern's M.A. in Worship and Spirituality and D.Min. in Worship by clicking on the website.)
