Pray without ceasing.
Oh, if it were that simple. Last night, our loved one heard my husband get up to let the cat out in the middle of the night. Having heard that he was ‘up’, they called my husband to see if they could borrow something. I assure you it was not a prayer that was on my lips. And earlier yesterday, water was pouring into my living room, through a previously small hole in ceiling. It was not the recently repaired roof failing, but rather a poorly place window air conditioner, that was collecting rain, and sheeting it down into the living room. No prayers there, either. Or even during the day, when I had no energy and sat and binge-watched stupid crime TV. No prayers then.
I like the notion of praying without ceasing, but I cannot manage to do it, for even part of a day. I wonder if Paul really did. Sure, in my better moments I can pray through boredom, insomnia, anger, frustration. But mostly not.
The accompanying reflection is from the mystic book, The Cloud of Unknowing. In it, the author says that, “Prayer in itself is nothing but a devout reaching out directly to God in order to attain the good and to do away with evil.”. They write that only two prayers are really ever needed, without thought or pensiveness. The first prayer is to banish sin, evil and death, and simply is sin. God knows what that prayer is, and it’s simple enough, we should be able to pray it, even without ceasing. The other prayer is equally short, and equally simple. God. The author writes, “Do not wonder why I set these words above all others. If I could think of any shorter words which so completely contained in themselves all good and all evil as do these two words, or if God taught me to use any other words, I would take them and leave these two”. They continue that if these words don’t strike a chord with you, leave them and take up equally simple prayer words.
I’m reminded of the book by Annie Lamott, where she’s done just that. Her book, “Help. Thanks. Wow”, are her three prayer words, and similar to the Cloud of Unknowing, she says that these three simple words are all we need. I’m not sure whether those are my three words, but I appreciate a more modern version of the Cloud of Unknowing’s advice of short, simple prayer word.
This morning, I’m thinking about the times in my life where I find it hardest to pray, and to think of the word or words that might become my super-simple prayer word, to help me take a step closer to praying without ceasing.
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