PRAYING IN HARD TIMES

On average, during calm and “normal’’ times, when things are going, as the British are wont to say “swimmingly,” 6 percent of British Christians regularly pray. If that figure seems low, it is consistent with research that supports the results that most Church of England (Anglican) members are notorious for “bracketing” religion out of their lives and darkening the Church door only for weddings and funerals.  Interestingly enough, after the onset of the present pandemic which has hit Great Britain hard, those polled as regularly praying jumped to 32 percent – 6 percent to 32 percent – a remarkable shift indeed!   What are we to make of this?  What does it say about how and why we pray?

One thing is abundantly clear – Jesus told us to seek God in our troubles. The New Testament is replete with verses admonishing us to rely on God in our pain, suffering, and need: “Cast your anxiety on Him for He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7);   “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30);  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11)

Seeking God in our lives, particularly during times of suffering, tragedy, and worldly disruption, is not only perfectly Christian, the Lord Himself bids us to do it.  Come to me! Seek me! Find me! Look for me! – I have what you desire, what you yearn for, what in the pool of pain and anxiety that is your heart. – you want more than anything. This is something one can’t put a number or statistic to. It can’t be put in a survey or a poll. Why?  It is the work of God. It happens at the mystical point of encounter between our heart and soul and His gracious mercy and compassion. It is the point where God touches man.,St. Innocent of Alaska reminds us: “In time of sorrow, instead of seeking help from others or consoling yourself through frivolous distraction and amusements, turn to God and seek help from Him alone.”

This raises yet another point.  Those of us who are old enough, remember the popular phrase “The are no atheists in a foxhole.” The meaning is clear – when your life is threatened by a mortal danger, by extinction, by the worst thing possible — the instinctive reaction is to turn to God, to prayer, to religious faith., even if one was thoroughly not religious during peaceful times.  And when the guns go silent and life resumes its normal routine, what about prayer? What about God?  The lesson is: prayer is not for crisis use only!  It is not a telephone through which we call God only when we need Him – the rest of the time, our line seems busy!

For Orthodox Christians, prayer is a way of living, a “daily rule” that we follow in order to come close to the Divine Presence within us. Even if we find it difficult to raise our heart in prayer, or we have a spiritually “dry” heart for a variety of reasons, our Holy Father St. Macarius the Great assures us: “One must force himself to prayer when he has not “spiritual prayer” in his heart; and thus, God beholding him striving and compelling himself, despite a resistant heart, to pray, gives him true prayer of the Spirit.”

God, in Christ, is the teacher of prayer. He sends His Holy Spirit to teach us that there is more to prayer than asking, begging, wanting, and going through our lists of what we need – though this has a definite place in our prayer life. However, having only this “list” kind of character to our prayer, reduces our prayer life to “me-centered.” It’s focus is simply on myself who wants and needs.  It is “I”, rather than, as the theologian Martin Buber notes, “I and Thou.” It says precious little about the One from Whom we ask – the One who inspires us to pray in the first place.  This is what praying only in crisis and “the bad times” is all about. You and I need to develop the prayer of doxology as well as the many prayers for our needs. You and I need to give praise and thanksgiving to the Father Who loves us with an everlasting love.  Paraphrasing Psalm 116, we can say “What can I return to the Lord for all He has given unto me?” – PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING!

Our Holy Father, St. Paisios of Mt. Athos, provides the antidote to prayer that is essentially self-centered and “me-preoccupied.”  The Elder writes: “A constant diet of only “give me” in prayer, can create grumbling which is caused by misery and it can be put aside by doxology (giving praise).  Frustration begets frustration and doxology begets doxology. When someone doesn’t become frustrated over a problem troubling him, but rather praises God, then the evil one leaves and goes off to someone else in order to cause everything to go even worse for him.  Even in crisis, one can have hope and celebrate all things in a spiritual manner with doxology – the prayer of praise and thanksgiving.”

Remember, as we see from the Scriptural passages at the beginning of this reflection, asking for our needs, praying for the diversion of this pandemic, raising people and situations to God in prayer is all perfectly natural and of the Holy Spirit.  When it becomes the ONLY form of our prayer or even the predominant one, we need to make adjustments to our Orthodox prayer life.  How can we do this?
In one of his sermons on the Gospel of St. Matthew, St. John Chrysostom puts is squarely: “Let us give thanks and praise to God continually. For, it is outrageous that when we enjoy His blessings to us in deed every single day, we do not acknowledge the favor with so much as a word; and this, when the acknowledgment confers great benefit on us. He does not need anything of ours, but we stand in need of all things from Him.”   The prayers of praise and thanksgiving have, in a certain sense, a “priority.”  They do so because they are directed to and focus totally on the goodness and love of God towards us. They are, in this sense, not solely  “me-directed” but “God-directed”, they are prayers of emptying on our part, thus obeying the words of St. Paul: “Have that mind in you which was in Christ Jesus…”(Philippians 2:5) – the prayer of kenosis (emptying), of pure attention given to the Divine Other.

As you pray that God keep us safe from the pandemic that besets us, as well as all your other needs,  Let us not allow our prayer to be dragged down — we have so  many blessings and graces from God.  I would urge you firstly to pray Psalms 144 through 150, or any combination of them. Make it a habit. These are Psalms of pure praise to God – they are hope-filled, they speak of gratitude and appreciation for His many gifts and graces, they are focused on Him as the God of Mercy, and, most importantly, they help empty us of our own ego and give ourselves over to His tender hands and His loving heart.  Make praise and thanksgiving the prayers that undergird all your other prayers of need.  Let us all join in praying fervently: “I will extol Thee, O God my King, and I will bless Thy Name forever and ever….Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and His presence is unsearchable.!” Unsearchable indeed…….

Counting you all among my greatest blessings, ,

Fr. Dimitrios