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Friends United Meeting |
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Quaker
Life
January/February 2002
The Quaker Understanding of Prayer
By Virginia Schurman
Prayer is constant and ongoing communion with the Lord, seeking and knowing God's presence with us in every moment of every day. Prayer is seeking to live fully into God's grace, gifts, and will for us for each moment. I've learned the importance of living in God's grace moment by moment from experiences in recent years. After the death of my brother and then a long time friend, both of whom where close to my age, I learned how precious the gift of life is. This precious gift brings us into His Presence daily. Paying attention to His Presence in daily prayer, and being open to the grace of each moment makes each day a special gift. Christ brings the grace of each moment in His Living Presence. Continual prayer is part of this ongoing relationship, moment-by-moment, and day-by-day. This is the meaning of ÒPray without ceasing.Ó (First Thessalonians 5:17)
Our relationship with Jesus brings life and guidance as God's will for us is made known and as we bring our life circumstances to God in prayer. Through prayer we understand what He is teaching us in our life circumstances as we are molded, changed and transformed into the image of Christ, the person God intends us to be. Prayer reveals to us God's will, that forms and transforms us and teaches us how to be loving, how to be Christ's hands and heart in the world...
Prayer as Relationship with God, A Relationship that Forms and Transforms
Our Lives
Jesus Himself modeled prayer as relationship to God in a very powerful
way. In the gospel of John, Jesus tells us, "The Son can do nothing
on his own but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father
does the Son does likewise." (John 5:19) He invites each of us
to enter into that same relationship, "Abide in me and I in you.
I am the vine and you are the branches." (John 15:1-11)
This close relationship with God through constant prayer was an important part of Quakerism from the very beginning. William Penn's Fruits of a Father's Love contains words of advice to his children: "As soon as you awake retire your mind into a pure silence from all thoughts and ideas of worldly things, and in that frame wait upon God to feel His good presence, to lift up your hearts to Him, and commit your whole self into His blessed care and protection...read a chapter or more in the Scriptures..." Then, throughout the day, while conducting "the business of the day ever remember that God is present, the overseer of all your thoughts, words and actions." When you can, "and as you have time delight to step home within yourselves...commune with your own hearts and be still." In the evening, "read the Holy Scriptures again and have your time of retirement before you close your eyes." William Penn says, "let the Lord be the Alpha and the Omega of your lives" (the beginning, the middle and the end of each day).
This tradition has continued among Friends. Wilmer Cooper writes in On Growing Up Plain about how his mother brought everything, large and small, to God's guidance. Wilmer had a penchant for ice cream and his mother asked him to pray to see if this was really a leading from the Lord. Of course, it always turned out that it was. This reveals how often in prayer we project on the Lord our own desires and wishes. It also shows how the example of another can lead us to bring all of our life in prayer for guidance. Another modern Friend, Thomas Kelly writes in Testament of Devotion of going about all his daily activities on one level and yet maintaining an underlying, ongoing attentiveness to God.
Prayer as relationship with God relies on a daily commitment of time and attention. Jesus regularly went aside to pray, alone or with His followers. Friends, from the earliest times, have always had a time they called retirement, a time for prayer and Bible reading on a daily basis. They have also tried to cultivate mental habits throughout the day of listening to God's presence.
Quaker Prayer as Contemplative Prayer
Jesus exemplified prayer as being with God. Although there were times
He asked for particular things, much of His prayer time was spent in just
being with the Father. Quaker prayer also has this contemplative nature,
a loving attentiveness and openness to God beyond words in which we let
go of all our competing distractions to be fully present to God. It is
an active surrendering, a self-abandonment to Divine providence. It is
a prayer of quiet, of a listening stillness, a prayer of the quiet peace
of being in the Lord's presence, of basking in His nearness and His Love,
of listening with the mind, heart and spirit and of being made teachable
by the Holy Spirit.
Quaker Prayer as Formative Prayer and Preparation for Ministry
Bringing one's life experiences to God (the prayer of examination) and
sharing one's day with the Lord brings healing to difficult situations,
and brings new light to discern where we can help others in our lives.
As a teacher, I have a very active and committed relationship with my
students. Prayer is important in finding where the Lord is leading me
in working with my students, fellow faculty members and other people I
come in contact with each day. In this listening prayer I learn to love
beyond my natural inclinations. This is an important aspect for teachers,
as well as others, in learning how to love difficult people. Through prayer
Christ can bring His love into our lives and help us to love beyond our
own natural inclinations. Prayer gives me the patience and the love I
need to really be with my students in a constructive and loving way. It
helps me to not get angry at their frequent demands and their problems,
but to be open and attentive to them as if Christ Himself is visiting
me. In such prayer I receive the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control
(Galatians 5:22)—as God's free gift to me. Through prayer, I learn
humility and patience, to be content with what God wills for me. In prayer,
we find true peace when we learn to be faithful to what God wants for
us.
In prayer, we are given patience in affliction. We are taught that God can even teach us through experiences that seem to be barren and disagreeable, and bring good out of them. It is wonderful to see how God works through all of our life circumstances to bring good, even though we may not see it at the time.
Through prayer we learn God's will and receive the strength and encouragement to do His will. Jesus prayed at important times in his ministry. Before He chose His disciples, Jesus prayed to know the Father's will....In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was not alone even though the disciples were sleeping. God is ever present. In Jesus' greatest trial, He prayed that the cup of suffering be removed from Him, but His prayer was not answered. Through prayer, He was strengthened to do the Father's will.
In the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus, we learn to renounce our fears and place our lives in God's hands, to honestly share our fears and hopes with God, our dearest Friend. We learn to pray to not fall into temptation by choosing our will above His.
In His prayer from the cross Jesus was able to forgive, even as He suffered and died: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) Forgiveness is possible through prayer, even when it is difficult to forgive in our own will. Jesus prayed in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." (Matthew 6:12) We are called to forgive, no matter how difficult.
Quaker Prayer as Led and Guided by the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray. In prayer we respond to God's initiative.
Often we think of ourselves as the initiators of prayer and seeking God,
but actually God first seeks us and continues to seek us. In Hebrews,
Paul reminds us of the eternal intercession of Christ for us as our high
priest, constantly supplicating the Father for us. In our prayers, we
join in that eternal intercession. This is comforting, assuring us the
work of prayer does not depend on us, but on the inward work of the Holy
Spirit. Prayer truly is God's gift. Paul says, "The Spirit helps
us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that
very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches
the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes
for the saints according to the will of God." (Romans 8:26-27)
The Holy Spirit is with us in our prayers and every other aspect of life,
teaching us how and when to pray. When we stumble in our words or our
intentions, the Spirit lifts us up. When we feel we have very muddy motives
in our prayer, the Spirit purifies them. When it seems like we only see
through a glass darkly, the Spirit adjusts and focuses the glass, so we
can correspond to the will of God.
The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, reshapes, refines, reinterprets and redirects our own feeble ego driven prayers. Most importantly, we can rest in the Spirit, realizing that we have come to the end of our powers even in prayer, and that the Holy Spirit is there to lead and guide us always.
Excerpted by permission from New Foundation Papers, No.71, pages 1-4.
Virginia Schurman is a member of Gunpowder Meeting (Baltimore YM) and teaches Microbiology at the Community College of Baltimore County at Essex. She is also a board member of the Tract Association of Friends and has been leading the BYM Spiritual Formation Program for many years.
Copyright (c) 2002 Friends United Meeting
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