Cracking open the Gates of Prayer

Recently we were fortunate enough to attend a bar Mitzvah and I became intrigued with this book, which I’d been leafing through before the ceremony.

Happily, Santa noticed my interest, and this afternoon I had a chance to read and think on some of these little gems:

47 I cannot be religious without belonging to a particular religion any more than I can talk without using a particular language.

5. I have always found prayer difficult. So often it seems like a fruitless game of hide-and-seek where we seek and God hides…Yet I cannot leave prayer alone for long. My need drives me to Him. And I have a feeling that He has His own reasons for hiding Himself, and that finally all my seeking will prove infinitely worthwhile. And I am not sure what I mean by “finding.” Some days my very seeking seems a kind of “finding”. And of course, if “finding” means the end of “seeking,” it were better to go on seeking.

18 If anyone comes to public worship and leaves with the feeling that he has got nothing out of it, let him ask: Did I bring anything to it? Most often the answer to the second will supply the cause of the first. A stubborn heart, a rebellious heart, a cold heart that cherishes its coldness, a critical mind that looks for objects of criticism, will not profit. It is true of public worship in a high degree that only they receive who give. The influence of public worship, like that of electricity, is felt only where there is a capacity for receiving it. Stone and ice are spiritual non-conductors. (Leslie Weatherhead, A Private House of Prayer)

44 Religion is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind, and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be realized; something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present fact; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension; something whose possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach; something which is the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.

And one for us political junkies:

In a place where no one behaves like a human being, you must strive to be human! Hillel

Lots of good stuff in here – food for thought, a source for lectio, prayer and growth. I am a lucky recipient!