Prayer Is Not About Me

Prayer Is Not About Me

This is what Fr. Abbot said was a necessary insight that must be grasped if one is going to experience any success, any regularity and consistency in his or her prayer life:

So long as we believe that prayer is supposed to be about our needs and our cares, so long as we expect prayer to conform to our expectation of a certain experience, we will be disappointed in prayer.  Prayer must be worship.  Not worship in the sense of singing songs that make me feel close to God--that's still about me.  Rather, worship in the older sense of offering in fear what is justly due to One supremely greater than myself.  And it is to this fear that faith and love are wed.

If we approach prayer, personal and corporate, as a sacred duty, a duty God has commanded of human beings, then we find the motivation to pray with a certain discipline and consistency.  Certainly, prayer motivated by duty alone will eventually produce bad fruit.  Duty is essential, but not enough.  But duty alone can carry us over the dry spots, when faith and love wane.