Inner Work

For the week of August 15, 2005

Wholeness in Prayer

The quality of prayer and its efficacy in opening us to the Divine depends primarily on how much of our heart and soul enters the act of prayer. The greater our wholeness in that moment, the deeper is our prayer. To pray fervently means to leave aside our other, perhaps conflicting, agendas and gather the whole of our intention to the act. We ignore all other thoughts and images, feelings and sensations, as we plunge into reverential prayer. In the immediacy of worship, we empty our heart and soul to make room for the Divine.

Intensity cannot readily be grafted on from the outside, but must come from within. Communal worship appears to bring such help from without, but actually it is the collective within that provides the help. The quality of the prayer of each individual in the church, synagogue, mosque, or temple contributes to the quality of the help that flows to his or her fellow worshippers. So whether we pray alone or in community, we make the effort to offer the whole of our being in prayer. That is the key to growth in our prayer life, to an ever-deepening ability to approach the Divine in purity of heart and strength of will.

There comes a point in prayer where the effort of wholeness falls away, as contact with the Higher opens and draws us near. The effort transforms into intense and total surrender, humility, joy, awe, and love.

The centrality of prayer in our spiritual life calls us to give it our best, to approach our times of prayer with utmost respect. For this week, seek a deeper quality in your prayer.

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