A. R. Ammons

Pray without Ceasing

Reflection “We get on our knees before bed or offer a blessing at table at the appropriate times of day, and we think of these as moments of prayer and are certainly not doing them all the time,” notes Paul Griffiths. “But for the Christian tradition, for the most part, this is an impoverished understanding of prayer. It is not wrong, it is just inadequate.” In the Apostle Paul’s astonishing call for unceasing prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17), Griffiths discerns a deeper understanding of the nature of prayer. Paul sees all the good things we enjoy—talents, opportunities, and virtues; family, friends, and institutions; food, clothing, and latest technologies; indeed our very lives—as undeserved gifts from God (1 Corinthians 4:7). To be grateful for them is to acknowledge our indebtedness to and welcome a relationship with God—two attitudes that are essential to adoration and prayer. This suggests, writes Griffiths, that to pray constantly “is to cultivate the habit of gratitude for gift in such a way that being grateful becomes, for us, an attitude that informs all we do.” Developing a habit of unceasing prayer would change how we perceive, care for, and act in the world. It would make us:  more attentive to the particulars of our own and others’ giftedness. Contrast how you would treasure a keepsake from your beloved with how you might neglectfully use a pushy advertiser’s unwanted ‘gift.’ In the former case, you notice the details of the gift and lovingly guard it. Through prayer, one begins to experience other people and the good things of this world that way, Griffiths says, as “given by the God who is interior intimo tuo, within what is most intimate to yourself, as well as being superior summo tuo, above what is highest in you.”  more receptive to God. When Augustine (354-430) wondered why God, who already knows everything we need or want, tells us to petition for things in prayer, he concluded: “God wants our desire to be exercised in our prayers, so that we become able to receive what he is prepared to give.” Prayer trains our love. When we do not pray, “our hearts are trammeled in the direction of ungrateful possessiveness,” Griffiths notes. But through the What do you think? Was this study guide useful for your personal or group study? Please send your suggestions to Christian_Reflection@baylor.edu.