The wish to pray is a prayer in itself. ~ Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest (1936), 4, tr. Pamela Morris
TheDisciples asked Jesus, "Teach us to pray."
I sit with the Steps and know to do the Eleventh
and read, "Sought through prayer and meditation
to improve our conscious contact with God
as we understood Him,
praying only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out."
And I, too, cry out, "Teach me to pray!!"
Surely I should know how with years of church,
writing church literature, drawing paychecks
from congregations, teaching Sunday school,
teaching Sunday school teachers
how to teach Sunday school...
Then I run across passages like this
and Samuel Chadwick's, "We know not what
we should pray for as we ought,
and if prayer waits for understanding it will never begin.
We discover by using. We learn by practice.
Though a man should have all knowledge about prayer,
and though he should understand all mysteries about prayer,
unless he prays he will never learn to pray."
God, I want to learn to pray!!
I sit with the Steps and know to do the Eleventh
and read, "Sought through prayer and meditation
to improve our conscious contact with God
as we understood Him,
praying only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out."
And I, too, cry out, "Teach me to pray!!"
Surely I should know how with years of church,
writing church literature, drawing paychecks
from congregations, teaching Sunday school,
teaching Sunday school teachers
how to teach Sunday school...
Then I run across passages like this
and Samuel Chadwick's, "We know not what
we should pray for as we ought,
and if prayer waits for understanding it will never begin.
We discover by using. We learn by practice.
Though a man should have all knowledge about prayer,
and though he should understand all mysteries about prayer,
unless he prays he will never learn to pray."
God, I want to learn to pray!!
No comments:
Post a Comment