Why Pray?
Last week we considered how we have outgrown some of our early concepts of God as a superhuman, or invisible parent figure residing somewhere ‘off in the heavens’. This sets the stage for us to grow our understanding of the Divine, from “a person to a Power” as Rev. Linda Martella- Whitsett puts it, in her book, How To Prayer Without Talking to God. Freed from the limits of personhood, it becomes easier to conceive of the fullness of this Power, as Divine Intelligence and Creative Energy through which all of creation exists. While this expanded understanding of God tends to occur naturally, as we seek a God that we can believe in and connect with more authentically, the corresponding update to the practice and purpose of prayer often lags behind. Replacing the images and concepts of the God of our youth tends to require new vocabulary that better reflects the full nature of the Divine and acknowledges our inherent connection with It. The words we use and the thoughts that we