How To Pray

The following is a brief reflection I shared with my fellow parishioners at the 8 a.m. service of our church on Sunday, July 24, 2022.

In today's reading from the gospel (Luke 11:1-13), the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and he tells them, "When you pray, say: "Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread," and so on. So a question I've been asking myself is: Is Jesus teaching his disciples what to pray or is he teaching them how to pray? Is he saying, "Pray this," or is he saying, "Pray like this"? Is Jesus telling his disciples to repeat what he says, word for word, or is he saying, "Pray like I'm praying" or "This is the way you can pray"? In Luke's Gospel, Jesus seems to be saying, "Pray this," but in Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus delivers his prayer to the assembled crowd at The Sermon on the Mount, he seems to be saying, "Pray like this," and depending on which version of the Bible you read, this phrase may be translated as "Pray then like this" or "Pray in this manner" or "This, then, is how you should pray."

      So I think Jesus is teaching us how to pray, rather than what to pray. I don't think he wants us to mechanically repeat some words we've memorized. I think he wants us to pray from our hearts, and to say what's in our hearts. This is in keeping with the other instructions about how to pray that he gives in The Sermon on the Mount:

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this..." (Matthew 6:5-15)

      Of course, there are many kinds of prayer: prayers of adoration, prayers of praise, prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of penitence, prayers of oblation, prayers of petition, and prayers for intercession. But when Jesus gives the disciples his own prayer, "Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come...", I think he's saying, "When you pray, you should honor God, you should pray for the coming of God's kingdom, you should ask for God's forgiveness, and you should pray for God's grace."

      The Book of Common Prayer says, in response to the question "What is prayer?" that "Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words."¹ Thus, prayer involves speaking and listening to God. it's a dialogue with God. It can be done silently or aloud. When we pray, we can discern what God's purpose is for us, and we can ask for grace to do God's will, and we can feel the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. True prayer isn't merely a mechanical repetition of memorized phrases, although this kind of practice may be useful in preparing us to speak directly to God and in teaching us how to pray. Rather, true prayer involves praying with all our hearts and souls, as well as minds.

FOOTNOTES 

¹The Book of Common Prayer, According to the use of The Episcopal Church (Kingsport: Kingsport Press, 1977), p. 856.