There’s been a lot of talk of prayer these days. Pray for France. Pray for the underreported news of Beirut and Baghdad and April’s tragedy in Kenya. No, pray for the world. No, don’t pray at all. Do.

Lots of discussion.

What Is Prayer?

I used to teach a lot about prayer for Pagans. And prayer is certainly a hot topic in some UU congregations. To whom are we praying? Why do we pray? What does it get us to pray? Or anyone else?

Today, in addition to writing about practices I find helpful, I shall include some words from my free e-book Your Journey Toward Wisdom: A Practice of Prayer. I include them not because I mean to promote my newsletter and book, but because I believe they are some of my thinking about prayer, distilled.

As I say in the book: Prayer is less about communication, and more about communion.

Prayer is less about talking than it is about listening.

Prayer is less about wishing and more about offering.

Prayer need not be about God as an outside, personified being. It may be more about communing with our own Deepest, Wisest selves.

Importantly, prayer is not about changing our outside circumstances.

Prayer is about allowing our interior to be changed. It is about surrendering to the daily process of practice.”

What Does Prayer Do?

And there are divers ways to pray. And all of them, in my view, do more to change us and the energy we use that changes the world then they are to immediately change external circumstances elsewhere. And I know, for myself, that changing my own heart works miracles.

Again from Your Journey Toward Wisdom:

“Belief in these miracles requires understanding the interconnectedness of all things.

All things in the Universe.

There is nothing that has happened in the history of the Universe that is not affecting ourlives right now.

There is nothing we do that does not circle and spiral out from us into the world, touching everyone and everything there is.

Prayer does work miracles because it changes us and we participate in the ever-evolving world.”

If we believe that the Seventh UU Principle’s “interconnected web” is real—and how can we not??—then we can enter into prayer with a free and unencumbered heart. We can know that our prayers, even and maybe especially petitionary prayer, are not wasted.

How Do We Pray?

But how do we pray? How do we actually do it?

When Jesus’ disciples asked him this question, he gave them a prayer, a formula, a way of looking at the world. Not a bad answer.

And maybe what I offer is a similar thing.

What activity changes your heart? Makes it softer, more compassionate and forgiving? What makes you wiser, more discerning, and able to wait for an answer that brings you peace?

Prayer is part of these activities. With intention, running, chopping carrots (be careful!), sitting at an altar, considering the movement and perfection of a candle flame, hiking, writing, reading…all these can be prayer.

The Important Thing Is Intention

The important thing, as in other ritual activities, is intention. We might even use the word, “mindfulness.” “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed,” is one famous quotation from Brother Lawrence, renowned for his simple, mindful practices of prayer. And love, in this case, is Lawrence’s mindfulness. It is his “having his mind on Jesus,” the object of his religious devotion.

In my prayer, my object is either on listening to my own Deepest, Wisest Self, or on my devotions to the God Herself, as I understand Her. An offering to the Divine of my heart and to the changes that I know can be wrought there.

What Works for Me

More conventional modes of prayer, like the use of prayer beads, can be super-helpful as well. I grew up praying the Rosary, and so it’s been healing for me to use my prayer beads. Familiar, yet new and mine. For me, they combine listening and offering. A student of mine created and gave to me beads set up sort of like a rosary. I have made my own prayers for each bead and pray them not only when I have the beads in my hands, but now when swimming. The rhythm of the water and the rhythm of the prayers go well together. Physical activity, mental attention to the Divine. It is good.
These are prayers that work for me: Physical activity like yoga or swimming, things that contribute to my mental focus; prayer beads; altar time; singing; and simply bringing myself into awareness of the Divine Who Is, God Herself.

I hope these meditations are helpful in reminding all of us that prayer does indeed work miracles. And that they are miracles of change, of ripples, of behavior and of love. It brings us authenticity, integrity, compassion and wisdom. Mindful authenticity. Insistent integrity. Fierce compassion. Growing wisdom.

These are what I hope for when I pray. And they are what I receive, more and more, in my life when my practice is solid. I don’t always know why or how, but that’s what happens.

May it be so for you. May it be so.