Some Thoughts on Prayer

Two stories from Anthony de Mello's book, Taking Flight:

A Rabbi once asked a pupil what was bothering him.
   "My poverty," was the reply. "So wretched is my condition that I can hardly study and pray."
   "In this day and age," said the Rabbi, "the finest prayer and the finest study lie in accepting life exactly as you find it."

On a bitterly cold day a Rabbi and his disciples were huddled around a fire.
   One of the disciples, echoing his master's teachings, said, "On a freezing day like this I know exactly what to do!"
   "What?" asked the others.
   "Keep warm! And if that isn't possible, I still know what to do."
   "What?"
   "Freeze."
     -- p. 32 Taking Flight- A Book of Story Meditations by Anthony de Mello, S.J.

Or, as I have often quoted, probably from another de Mello story- The secret to prayer is never to pray for rain in the dry season.

There is a reality to prayer that often escapes us. It is to accept the situation as it is and not look to God as if he were a gift-granter. Just because we want something, doesn't mean it is what we are supposed to have. True prayer is to put oneself into the great flow of the will of God and then discover the power to live that will.

There is also no such thing as "unanswered" prayer. There is always an answer- it may just not be the one we are looking for. God, like any parent, says "No," or "Not yet!" I am afraid that our understanding of prayer is more like a spoiled child who wants what he wants when he wants it and will throw a tantrum if he doesn't receive it. That will not produce the serenity, acceptance and power that God wants us to have. That will only produce resentments.

What God wants for us is the best that we can have. Whatever that means in God's timing and God's planning. To bow in humble adoration of a God who wants to give that to us is the true beginning of prayer.