It’s easy to delay prayer as we brace for the daily grind, and easier still to forget about it as we wade through the tumult of the day. But what if we thought of prayer as our first and most…
Tag archives for prayer
God’s mysterious methods
It’s easy to get frustrated at God and the way he appears to be ignoring our plans and prayers. But God’s ways are not, so Isaiah informs us, ours. And it’s interesting what can happen when we look back at…
Why pray the hours?
When you read the scriptures, you not only learn about the content of prayer (contrition, thanksgiving, petition, etc.), but you also notice the discipline of it, the regularity of it. Both previously, Daniel and the Psalmist pray three times a…
Enriched by ritual
I run into people from time to time who are very skeptical of religious ritual, things like liturgy or hourly prayers, practices like fasting or crossing yourself. If we discuss it, they usually tell me that they think it’s deadening,…
Bonhoeffer’s blessed sign
I’ve been dipping in an out of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison and was surprised to discover that he used the sign of the cross in his daily prayers. In a letter from November 21, 1943, he says…
Thanks for everything
Get this scene: A monk sits on a train. A fellow passenger approaches and offers him a cigarette. Monks aren’t much known to smoke, but this monk was once a soldier and gratefully accepts the gift. Holding the slender item,…
