Rector’s Daily Reflections
Friday 1st March 2024
Learning More About Prayer
Yesterday I shared some thoughts on the importance of preparing ourselves for a time of prayer. There are many different ways we can prepare ourselves for a time of prayer- different approaches work for different people. But time and effort spent on preparation is never wasted.
One form of preparation is to spend some time thinking about God and our relationship with Him. How might we do this? One possibility is to ask ourselves three particular questions:
(i)Where do I come from? I come from God, the source of everything that exists.
(ii)Where am I going? I am going back to God, and will return to Him at the end of my pilgrimage here on earth. My life on earth is preparation for my life in Heaven.
(iii)Why am I here on earth? I am here to serve God and to give glory to Him in the particular circumstances of my life here on earth.
I wonder if you find these three questions helpful? I have found them in an old book written by a Church of England priest called Walter Carey, who was Bishop of Bloemfontein in the 1920s and 1930s. The book is titled Prayer and some of its difficulties, and it was published back in 1915, at a time when its author was serving as a chaplain in the Royal Navy. Carey’s writing is clear and direct, and I think it reflects the sort of things he would have said to his fellow sailors and officers. He was also a keen rugby player, and I can imagine him using similar words when talking to his team mates. Carey felt that it was his duty to share the gospel of Christ as simply and powerfully as possible, and not to mince words. His language is of course sometimes a little dated, but the sincerity of his Christian belief cannot be doubted. Hence his determination to write a book helping ordinary folk to pray- not a book written for academics or the pious.
Carey teaches that learning to pray means following a series of steps, which have to followed in the correct order. The first step is thinking about God- hence the three questions listed above. For Carey, trying to pray to God without first thinking about God is simply a waste of time. It will get us nowhere.
I wonder if you would agree with this approach?