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Thinking Anew: prayer and action belong together

Lord, teach us to pray

What we ask for must be consistent with the mind and purpose of God. Getty Images

Gordon Linney
Sat Jul 23 2022 - 10:29

In tomorrow’s gospel St Luke tells us that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray: “He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And so, we are given the model prayer – “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come . . .”

The words are familiar, perhaps too familiar, but it is worth noting their ecumenical significance. In our Sunday liturgies when we say this prayer, we are engaging in a truly ecumenical activity with Christians worldwide, in cathedrals, churches and chapels, hospitals and prisons, at sea and at home, wherever people of faith gather.

But it is much more than a celebration of togetherness. It is also a declaration of a shared conviction that there is a God who is approachable, generous and caring.

Prayer, however, can be challenging; although in a crisis most people, including declared agnostics, will quickly find ways to appeal to God for help. Such was the case with Tony Bullimore, a round-the-world sailor whose yacht capsized in1997 in the Southern Ocean. He was presumed lost but amazingly, after three days in total darkness in an air pocket in the upside-down boat he was rescued. While insisting that he was not a “religious” man he admitted that he had prayed as most people do in times of crisis.

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But too often our prayers seem to go unanswered especially when they are of the “shopping list” style which treats God as a divine welfare service. That according to Søren Kierkegaard is not what prayer is about: “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” What we ask for must be consistent with the mind and purpose of God as these words used by Alcoholics Anonymous make clear: “Praying only for the knowledge of his will” – which is exactly what Jesus himself did in the shadow of the cross: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Following yet another tragic shooting incident in the US recently a leading politician was criticised for saying that he was “lifting up in prayer” victim families while taking large contributions from the gun lobby. An international newspaper described his “thoughts and prayers” as “obfuscation and inaction” given his opposition to gun control. It is easy to tell people we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers as an expression of sympathy but it has to go beyond words where possible even if it is only a visit, a phone call or a letter.

Elizabeth O’Connor who was a volunteer worker at an overnight shelter for street women in Washington DC makes that point in her book Cry Pain, Cry Hope. She describes an event that took place on a bitterly cold morning at the night shelter: “When morning came the peaceful atmosphere inside the shelter turned hostile. Distraught women – some of them old and sick – could not comprehend why they were once more being `pushed out` into the streets. We, who had received them so warmly the night before, were the very ones hurrying them along, benefactors so soon to become enemies. In the narrow hall where the women were having breakfast, an old woman with a gentle face kneeled to pray. She was in the way of another woman who taunted her, ‘Get up woman. God don’t hear your prayer.’ The praying woman did not respond and her taunter said again, ‘God, don’t hear your prayer woman. God don’t hear your prayer.’ I asked myself, ‘Does God hear her prayer?’ Then I remembered. God is in me and where I am God is. The real question was ‘Did I hear her prayer?’ What would it mean to hear her prayer?”

“Ora et labora” means that prayer and work, contemplation and action, belong together.

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