Tomswife
Senior member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2022
- Messages
- 666
- Reason
- Lost a loved one
- Diagnosis
- 08/2022
- Country
- US
- State
- NJ
- City
- Livingston
My prayers tend to be short and to the point...
Abide with me
Thy will be done
Please Lord Help us
Forgive me
Or I read from the Bible or reflections and faith discoveries of others
Sometimes I need to remember the Lord is with us and be quiet.
"be still and know that I AM God" Psalm 46:10
"Praying without Words
For author and Episcopal priest Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, it’s during times when words fail us that turning to wordless prayer can help sustain our faith.
God is not a figure outside of our experience and in need of information about it. We don’t really need to pray about anything; we’re not in charge of much of what happens in the world. We can content ourselves with prayer from within it all.
So if prayer’s efficacy is not measured by whether or not we get what we ask for, it’s probably safe to stop asking for things, especially if doing so seems to feed the desperation and despair that take root in the soul of a depressed person—if prayer has become little more than worry with an “Amen” tacked on at the end. Here is a suggestion:
Maybe we could try not using words at all.
Never is this permission to be wordless more important than when depression strangles even the everyday words of human interaction. At such a time, a spiritual practice may be needed that will allow your emptiness, rather than fight to fill it. The ancient practice of centering prayer is one, like other meditative techniques from other religions and cultures: the quiet, gentle abdication of all one’s illusions of personal power and control. It is not measured by the quality or quantity of emotion it produces. Prayer doesn’t have to be measured by anything. "
Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, Jesus Wept: When Faith and Depression Meet (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009), 114
Abide with me
Thy will be done
Please Lord Help us
Forgive me
Or I read from the Bible or reflections and faith discoveries of others
Sometimes I need to remember the Lord is with us and be quiet.
"be still and know that I AM God" Psalm 46:10
"Praying without Words
For author and Episcopal priest Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, it’s during times when words fail us that turning to wordless prayer can help sustain our faith.
God is not a figure outside of our experience and in need of information about it. We don’t really need to pray about anything; we’re not in charge of much of what happens in the world. We can content ourselves with prayer from within it all.
So if prayer’s efficacy is not measured by whether or not we get what we ask for, it’s probably safe to stop asking for things, especially if doing so seems to feed the desperation and despair that take root in the soul of a depressed person—if prayer has become little more than worry with an “Amen” tacked on at the end. Here is a suggestion:
Maybe we could try not using words at all.
Never is this permission to be wordless more important than when depression strangles even the everyday words of human interaction. At such a time, a spiritual practice may be needed that will allow your emptiness, rather than fight to fill it. The ancient practice of centering prayer is one, like other meditative techniques from other religions and cultures: the quiet, gentle abdication of all one’s illusions of personal power and control. It is not measured by the quality or quantity of emotion it produces. Prayer doesn’t have to be measured by anything. "
Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, Jesus Wept: When Faith and Depression Meet (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009), 114
