true prayer ..... silence
"...... true prayer demands that we be more passive than active; it requires more silence than words, more adoration than study, more concentration than rushing about, more faith than reason."
from 'Letters from the desert' by Carlo Carretto
This short sentence stood out for me in this excellent book and, more or less, summarises how I feel about prayer. There is a vaguely humorous (to us) phrase in the Bible where Jesus advises us "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words".
Church services certainly have their appeal for some and I am not suggesting that people abandon them, but it does bring into focus that, in prayer, we are the passive ones and we become more receptive to God in our silence.
Let us look at each part of the quote from Carlo Carretto above.
'more passive than active'
We perhaps tend to think about 'praying TO God' .. No prayer, whether spoken or sung, is wasted of course but if we 'babble' on too long and don't allow enough silence within our prayers, then we are not being passive and becoming receptive to God's presence in our lives.
'more silence than words'
This emphasises the previous point. Words are fine, but it is in the silence that we move closer to God. This can be challenging for us as we are so used to information overload, but, with practice, the silence comes and becomes a highly valued part of our lives.
'more adoration than study'
Study is important. It helps us to understand and to deepen our faith. It can be all too easy though to intellectualise prayer life rather than practise it and the emphasis should be more on the silence than the study.
'more concentration than rushing about'
Rushing about seems to be the norm for those of us in the West. We are always rushing for some reason. To get to work on time, to squeeze holidays or visits in and even to rush to pray, managing to squeeze it into our busy lives. Taking a deep breath and focusing on the important things in life will help us to live a more fulfilling and prayerful life.
'more faith than reason'
This is probably one of the most important. We can think or read as much as we like about God and it is good that we do so. However, we cannot 'know' God .. what, or who, he is. We can only have faith and rest in the mystery of God without the need to resolve it'.