Prayer

 I just began reading Walk In Love: Episcopal Beliefs and Practices by Scott Gunn and Melody Wilson Shobe. So far, it seems a gentle, orderly approach to helping others known Christ and live out their lives in Him via the Episcopal faith.

A few days ago, I read the chapter on prayer. Part of my dissonance with my Catholic upbringing revolves around the formulaic prayers that I grew up with.  It felt like too much emptiness to recite big words over and over until I knew them so well that I could say each prayer without engaging my mind or heart within it.  Is this prayer?

And is the answer to this disconnection the types of freeform prayers characteristic of low church tradition?  These prayers may engage our minds more immediately but can also become empty pockets of flowery jargon without meaning. Such prayers can also center around our own perceptions and needs to the point where the prayer becomes more about the individual than God.

One thing I like about the book is that they connect their explanations of concepts back to what the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). Here is a difference from my Catholic experiene--there is no such book in the Catholic tradition.  Also, there is no such book in the low church tradition. In fact, it could be considered blasphemous.

The low church is great at putting the Bible on a pedestal then not wrestling with it and making too many pat assumptions about it says.  First, we have to read it.  

The high church is great at adding things on---like the BCP.  Episcopalians would respond that the majority of the BCP is scripture, which is a great point. Gunn and Wilson also point out that the BCP offers many variations on prayers and ways to celebrate while also offering a consistency and uniformity that unites us with the larger church.  

At this point, I believe these are sound arguments. The rhythm of a liturgical year feels healthy to understanding, inhabiting, and being mindful of Christ.  Although Paul states that Christians do not need to follow feast days and that all are equal in Christ, the intentionality of the Anglican approach and BCP appeal to the orderly thorough pieces of my spirit.

The Episcopal definition of prayer is beautiful and well-rounded, "responding to God by thought and by deeds, with or without words." This leaves the concept of prayer wide open--broader than pre-formed or free form prayers, spoken or internal words, it also embodies deeds, a concept that seems logical, instinctual, but also somewhat new to me.  Acting out my faith in deeds is not new, but praying through deeds, yes. 

Gunn and Wilson comment further that "an intimate, unbreakable connection exists between the words that we say in prayer and the things that we do in our daily lives." They reference the Latin phrase, "Lex orandi, lex credendi" which links prayer, belief, and action. Dipping into the history of that term, it's easy to quickly find oneself in deep waters. It's an old term which taps into the differences between Catholics and Anglicans and how these traditions view the primacy of scripture and the proper purpose and role of liturgy.

I appreciate having more to think about though.  I still don't know how to inhabit preformed words as I recite them congregationally, and I'm not sure if that is even the point.  I do see value in the act of prayer being interpreted in larger senses--prayer becoming an outworking of our faith, linked intimately to belief becoming action.