Following on from yesterday it struck me this morning that praying for the poor, the suffering, the ills of the world is, although undoubtedly well intentioned, a cop-out. It is counterproductive. Do we really believe that God is going to do something? Many believe in the occasional miracle, and Lourdes and similar places have their devotees, but no one really believes that as a result of our prayers the wicked will be put down and the poor exalted; that the world will be changed. This kind of prayer is a cop-out. It is a sop to our conscience. It lets us off the hook of practical activity. There is nothing I can do about Iraq, or Darfur, or Palestine, or unemployment, or the thousands of injustices meted by the rich and powerful on the poor and disadvantaged, but God is all-powerful and, in theory at least, he could, if he was so disposed, alleviate the situation. My prayers might help in this regard so I’ll say a few prayers. This sort of logic might make me feel a little better but it will do nothing for the suffering and, if I think it through, it is not logic but wishful thinking.
Just imagine if we all believed that our prayers will do nothing to alleviate the ills of the world. Imagine too that we have not become anaesthetised to the sufferings we see daily on our TV screens, that we burned with anger and indignation at the lies, corruption and hypocrisy ever more evident in public life, that we wept for our children searching for a way in an anarchic and materialist world. We would do something.
I think there are two kinds of prayer. There is the prayer that is contemplative, the gradual and progressive unfolding into Reality, the realisation of the True Self and there is the prayer of petition. This latter can widen, I think, the gulf between the individual and God. It can diminish the individual and exalt the Deity, enfeeble and inhibit activity. The prayer that is the deepening awareness of the indwelling Spirit empowers.