“For many of us prayer means nothing more than speaking with God,” says Nouwen. “…[another] viewpoint restricts the meaning of prayer to thinking about God…How can we possibly expect anyone to find real nurture, comfort, and consolation from a prayer life that taxes the mind beyond its limits and adds one more exhausting activity to the many already scheduled ones?”
‘Went to the bank’—check
‘Led a meeting’—check
‘Said my prayers’—check.
‘Took a bath’—check
‘Wrote a thank you card’—check
How do you and I move past looking at prayer as simply one more thing to do? Nouwen says, “The literal translation of the words “pray always” is “come to rest”. I think that puts a different twist on prayer and praying and opening our hearts to God.
The way to “come to rest”, according to Nouwen, is found in the words of the Russian mystic Theophan the Recluse: “To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all-seeing, within you.”
At first glimpse this sounds like a difficult and even frightening thing to attempt. And truly “such prayer transforms our whole being into Christ precisely because it opens the eyes of our soul to the truth of ourselves as well as to the truth of God.” So how can we dare to be that vulnerable with and before our God?
Paul encourages the Thessalonians, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (I Thes. 5:16-18) Rejoicing, thanking, and constant prayer are very different from listing our demands, needs, wants, and desires. The type of prayer Paul and Nouwen encourage is “to stand before the face of the Lord”—and simply BE with the same sense of expectation that Tony sings of in West Side Story:
Could be!
Who knows?
There's something due any day;
I will know right away,
Soon as it shows.
It may come cannon balling down through the sky,
Gleam in its eye,
Bright as a rose!
Who knows?
It's only just out of reach,
Down the block, on a beach,
Under a tree.
I got a feeling there's a miracle due,
Gonna come true,
Coming to me!
Could it be? Yes, it could.
Something's coming, something good,
If I can wait!
Something's coming, I don't know what it is,
But it is
Gonna be great! ...
Nouwen is quoted as praying "Lord, that my life might become simple enough for me to be able to say "yes" when Jesus looks at me.” This week, let us try to look at prayer as exciting, exhilarating rest and renewal time with God instead of a task to check off our lists. The acronym ACTS is sometimes suggested as a way to deepen prayer time. Our first focus is Adoration of and Confession to the Living Lord, followed by Thanksgiving. Only at the end do we come to Supplication for our needs and/or Intercession for others needs.
Next week will be the final one with Nouwen and Way of the Heart. How does living into the three disciplines help us live more fully into our Call as a Child of God?
