Today's morning insight - the more I work with prayer in the Church fathers, for my latest book, the more I am convinced that the Church fathers would say:
It's better to pray short prayers than long prayers, and it's better to repeat a short prayer over and over than go on and on with a one-time improvised prayer.
It's better to pray with the words of Jesus, or the words of Scripture, than to pray in your own words. Not that there is anything wrong with praying in your own words in your own private prayer, necessarily, but if Jesus criticized prayers that "babble like the pagans" (Matthew 6:7), the point is that we are more likely to fall into babbling on if we are praying in our pwn words than if we are praying shorter prayers from Scripture. (And as I have shown elsewhere, the word "repetition" is not in the Greek of Matthew 6:7, so it's not against repetition in prayer).
When it comes to leading prayer in a group, especially if that means extemporaneous prayer, the Church fathers would say that's only for clergy to do, or lay catechists who have theological training and who are authorized by the bishop to do so. This is because it's easy to accidentally fall into heresy when making up prayers without theological training.
I think Protestants are not going to like this book. But I did not set out to write a Catholic book about prayer. I set out to write a book about prayer in the early Church, and it should not surprise us that Catholic prayer traditions did not develop in opposition to early Christian prayer, but directly from it.
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
The problem with us men is that often we don't have the wisdom to be a father until we're a grandfather.
This may sounds like some ironic statement that makes you nod your head in agreement but shrug your shoulders in resignation, thinking, well there's nothing we can do about that. But the practical application of that is that it demonstrates how important it is for kids to grow up around their grandparents. But as in our culture the family becomes ever more fractured and spread out, that is harder and harder to do.
Lately I've been thinking that part of the problem is the whole concept of college. It used to be that everyone thought a person had to go to college to make a good living. Not only is that not the case (truck drivers make more money than I do) but now college has gone from useless to actually ruining our kids. But when I went to college, what you were supposed to do is figure out what career you wanted (as if anyone knows that at age 18) and then go away to the college ...
And don't forget, if you would like to read my latest novel:
The Sword and the Clover - just let me know by email.
I'm happy to send you the PDF version, even if you haven't been a monetary supporter of the community - all I ask is that you don't share it with anyone else.
My email address:
Keep in touch!
JIm
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