tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15398304.post7711721210438154576..comments2024-03-26T17:44:29.168+00:00Comments on The Mercy Blog: Explaining prayer?Mike Farleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732248182662167951noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15398304.post-64044982221299654672013-04-07T05:14:11.678+01:002013-04-07T05:14:11.678+01:00I think if we ever figure prayer out, it will not ...I think if we ever figure prayer out, it will not be prayer. If the Spirit is moving within us, transforming us into something new and improved each and every day, will not our awareness of Him, our comprehension of Him, and even our communication with Him do the same. I am finding it is more abiding, than saying. More being than doing. Allowing myself to be drawn into Him.....Ah, how sweet it is!!Johttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13265908367915608881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15398304.post-79122670574837108302013-04-07T01:18:20.706+01:002013-04-07T01:18:20.706+01:00@Brian - yes, exactly; and Meister Eckhart speaks ...@Brian - yes, exactly; and Meister Eckhart speaks to this, too. @Mike, yes also: "He is before all things...". I don't yet know my way around scripture as well as some, so I appreciate your pointers.Onanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15398304.post-36899561225105908442013-04-06T23:33:50.366+01:002013-04-06T23:33:50.366+01:00_The Book of Privy Counseling_ says to empty yours..._The Book of Privy Counseling_ says to empty yourself of all thoughts, do not use words, if possible, and give your very substance of being, "naked," to God, who is the ground of our being.Brian McNeilhttp://www.facebook.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15398304.post-85398944903687208352013-04-06T19:33:40.162+01:002013-04-06T19:33:40.162+01:00I sometimes wonder, Ona, if the presence in the un...I sometimes wonder, Ona, if the presence in the universe of dark (i.e. indetectable by our senses) matter and energy is not something to do with all this... I'm not, I hope, working myself up to anything bizarre, but your words about "something that just endlessly resonates through the universe, by itself..." resonate very strongly with what I sense myself. "That of God in everyone" is in fact in and through all that is: as Paul said in Colossians 1.15-17, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."Mike Farleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06732248182662167951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15398304.post-1314140512899373872013-04-06T18:32:17.559+01:002013-04-06T18:32:17.559+01:00This is so interesting. Prayer for me for a long t...This is so interesting. Prayer for me for a long time was always in that "ask for stuff" category. When one day that simply ran into a wall, and I saw that it wasn't really just about that I was quite disoriented. Who was I to have this list of requests, wanting things to be this way or that way? What about "thy will be done"? I felt as if I weren't seeing something obvious.<br /><br />I struggled a while to understand why I should pray at all if that familiar way of praying "for things" wasn't fitting anymore. And then it began to make sense. I framed it as prayer formerly being "aspiration" and now being "affirmation." Prayer - and even when it is vocal, ritual prayer - became more of a participating in God's presence in all its forms - both the joys and sorrows, etc. as you describe.<br /><br />But something else came to me more recently, which is a sense of timelessness in prayer, a sense that prayer "already always is." It makes that sense of "being with" even stronger.<br /><br />Sometimes when I am praying in words, I feel as if all the centuries of people praying those words are resonating together in this moment. Or that the prayers - silent or spoken - are not something I or anyone else does, but something that just endlessly resonates through the universe, by itself. A bit like humming a note that resonates with the symphony already being played, perhaps? It moves me to tears, often.Onanoreply@blogger.com