Thursday, February 16, 2012

What Prayer Is Not


Prayer is not technique
for getting things, pious
exercise to make God
happy.

Prayer is not a ticket
to heaven. It’s more
like practicing heaven
now.

Prayer is a way of seeing
that takes away anxiety
for figuring it all out
here.

Needing to be right about
everything. Here, now God 
becomes more verb than
noun.

God--more process than conclusion,
more experience than dogma,
more intimacy than
idea.

Someone is dancing with you,
and you are not afraid
of getting it
wrong.



*This poem is a very close paraphrase, almost a quote of the following Richard Rohr passage from The Naked Now: Learning to see as the mystics see.

In prayer, we merely keep returning the divine gaze and we become its reflection, almost in spite of ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:18). The word “prayer” has often been trivialized by making it into a way of getting what we want. But I use “prayer” as the umbrella word for any interior journeys or practices that allow you to experience faith, hope, and love within yourself. It is not a technique for getting things, a pious exercise that somehow makes God happy, or a requirement for entry into heaven. It is much more like practicing heaven now.

Such prayer, such seeing, takes away your anxiety for figuring it all out fully for yourself, or needing to be right about your formulations. At this point, God becomes more a verb than a noun, more a process than a conclusion, more an experience than a dogma, more a personal relationship than an idea. There is Someone dancing with you, and you are not afraid of making mistakes.