Mennonite Weekly Review

Prayer is the engine that powers effective living. Start by breathing deeply. Turn your thoughts God-ward. Be nourished by quietness. Prayer is the universal conscious effort to commune with the divine. (Anglican Bishop Gene Robinson says that as he grows older he uses fewer and fewer words in prayer.)

Stackley

We city folks are marinated in noise. We envy those who have options for quietness. All of us are subjected to competing entertainments, always faster and ever more violent. Consider quietness a gift — not to be assumed in our North American culture. Place yourself in a routine of quietness and prayer. Honor the disciplines to which you have been led. Let the acronym ACTS help you: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.

French writer Simone Weil recited the Lord’s Prayer every morning “with absolute attention.” If her mind wandered, she started again at the beginning. She reported that Christ’s presence became “infinitely more real.”

It’s another seamless message

To James’ pointed text add Paul writing to the church in Ephesus, challenging his readers to “pray at all times … with all manner of prayer.” (“All manner”: For example, it is said that those who sing pray twice.) And to the church in Philippi Paul writes, “Make your requests known to God in prayer.” We can trust Paul because he practiced what he preached: When put to the test, imprisoned in Philippi for derailing the income of men abusing a girl, Paul prayed (Acts 16). Add Peter’s words to James and Paul: “Be clear minded, so that you can pray” (1 Peter 4:7). And, of course, trump the pile with Jesus: getting up early for prayer (Mark 1:35), praying at his baptism (Luke 3:21), praying all night before naming the 12 apostles (Luke 6:12-13), teaching directness and simplicity (Mark 12:40).

Robert J. Suderman, Mennonite Church Canada leader, made a list of 18 reasons to pray. Three of them are parallel: Prayer is an act of resistance against the claims of consumerism, against the claims of militarism, against the claims of secularism. Add to that: “Prayer is an instrument for reconciliation. It is difficult to harbor resentment or hate against someone for whom we have prayed.”