Prayer Called Forth

Today I was reading about prayer In Naomi Levy's book, To Begin Again, and wondered again whether my prayers are being called forth from deep within me, are they memorized ritual, or am I sort of pushing my concerns up the hill towards God hoping he will hear them?

She writes,

“Prayer not only connects us to God, it also forces us to become intimately acquainted with our own souls…It is hard to talk to God.  It’s difficult to find the words or the voice to speak the words that are locked up within us. We have so much to say, but it takes enormous energy to dig deep enough inside our souls to reach out to God.”

Sometimes we need to dig deep to find words to pray. Other times there are no words, adequate or graspable for us to utter and we must simply let the Spirit call forth from deep within our souls the music - sweet or discordant - to be offered.

I like this illustration Levy uses:

“…a poor shepherd boy came to pray at the synagogue of the great Hasidic master the Baal Shem Tov.  As he sat mesmerized by the words and the melodies of the service, he had a deep longing to join in.  But the boy was illiterate and didn’t know any of the traditional prayers.

In his pocket the boy kept a small flute that he would take with him when he was tending his flock…

The little shepherd sat in silence during the long and awesome service, but at last his soul could no longer restrain itself.  He reached into his pocket and blew on the flute with all his heart.  A commotion swept through the synagogue.  The people who had been praying so intently were startled and appalled by the sudden outburst.  But the Baal Shem Tov explained that the shepherd’s prayer had come from the depths of his soul and had risen to the very seat of God.  With his small flute, the shepherd had lifted up all the eloquent prayers in the sanctuary.”

May we experience prayer that the “Spirit that searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10) calls forth from deep within our souls.

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A wonderfully creative lady made me a lovely pair of handwarmers. Our son Matthew introduced me to the idea of handwarmers when he began wearing on his hands old socks cut off at the toe and a hole cut for the thumb.  They are very good for keeping hands warm while writing, typing, painting, or just generally being creative.  I took this picture for my sister because she knits and creates with wool and I thought it would inspire her. As I look at it now I also see it as a gesture – perhaps an invitation to you and I to be open to what is being called forth from within. 

Blessings of the New Year,

Laurel