What Is Prayer Anyway?

Charme Robarts, Community Advocate and DiscipleChurch Coordinator

I’ve come to think of a lot of my midnight ramblings as prayers, because what is prayer anyway?

So many things to so many people. And all are to be honored.

Sometimes to me prayers are statements of my perspective or my hopes and dreams. Often a prayer is my intention to be aligned with God’s work in the world, though honestly I don’t always have a clear vision of that.

Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, must have felt that way when he wrote:

Lord I have no idea where I am going

I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.

That’s a familiar feeling.

Merton’s feelings of not knowing, his experience of starting, stopping, the inability to find a solution…is kind of like having a hole in my pocket where the ideas and hopes can slip away.

And yet, there are other days, that leave us surprised by joy and hope and we regain our footing. It’s like stumbling on to a treasure hidden in a field, even if stubbing a toe in the process.

So Holy One,

as we continue our collective wondering and wandering

through the crisis that consumes so much of our reality.

As we sometimes feel malaise or despair,

May we be surprised again and again by a resurrected spirit of hope and joy

 that keeps us going and clears a path for us to contribute to all the good in the world.

 May those opportunities fill us with purpose

 while we are away from our regular routines

 and while the plans we made have slipped away.

May we not be entombed by wishes for the what cannot be,

 may we rise up and lift others with us.

 Or may they rise and lift us up.

Whatever it takes.

Amen.

 

 

 

Charme Robarts
Community Advocate