“At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.” – Genesis 4:26
Dear People of St. David’s
From the very beginning women and men have “called on God.” In the time of Adam and Eve, long before there was understanding of God or what relationship with the Holy meant, people called out to the LORD. When people cried out to God in times of national or personal crisis, God heard their prayers and came to deliver them and/or sustain them. The Prophets of the Old Testament heard the “word of the Lord” and spoke it to the people of Israel to help guide, correct, exhort them, and foretell the works of salvation that were ahead.
The Psalmists introduced us to deep intimate prayer to the Holy One. There are Psalms of praise and adoration, of anger and cries for revenge against enemies, of confession and restoration, of thanksgiving and supplication (making our requests known to God.) The Psalms give us an illustration of ways of praying. Someone has suggested an acrostic to help us understand a comprehensive discipline of prayer, ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication (Intercession). As in the deepest human relationships these four disciplines of communication are present. We express how deeply we adore our significant other, we apologize or ask for forgiveness when we have hurt or wronged the other, we offer thanks for the kindnesses and acts of grace that we receive from our beloved, and we ask for the things we need from each other. All these characteristics are present in a rich life of prayer and contemplation with our Lord whose love, grace, mercy, a daily presence in our lives has captivated us.
While in the Old Testament prayer is addressed to God, in the New Testament we learn that there is more to God than we had ever imagined. In the Gospels, we meet God’s Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit at Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River and in John 14 and 16. Paul writes more fully of who Christ is (see Philippians 2) and how the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 12-14, Ephesians 4) teaches us to pray and do ministry. Though the doctrine of the Trinity is never overtly stated in the pages of Scripture, it is drawn forward into Church life in the great Councils of the Church in the first four centuries CE.
In the Western Church we have tended to focus our conversation on the difference between the three persons of the Trinity. In the Eastern Church and the mystical theologians there has been more attention to their unity and communion with one another and Their movement in our lives through prayer and contemplation. Our contemplation of Them helps us know Their unity of mission and purpose.
I learned to pray as a small child. We prayed together as a family, and I would often find my parents praying in the morning. As a teenager I began to pray in the morning, keep a journal, and read Scriptures for the day. I would note at the top of the page each day things and people I was concerned about. Then I would write a brief letter to God about the things I discovered in the Scripture (what spoke most to me). Since my brain worked far faster than my pen, I began to learn to hear the voice of God addressing the issues I had raised at the top of the page. I recorded these discoveries as well. I discovered that my concerns about people and things often required a change in me. As I have grown older, my prayer has grown less dependent on images of God (paintings, music, things I learned when I was a child, or studying theology).
Deep faithful prayer allows us to be more present in the moment where change is the norm, and I must not be bound by what I thought I knew and instead be open to what God is doing or saying in this moment. I have found that I am more aware of the whole Trinity and my growing union and unity with Them which opens me to more nuance and complexity. I am more able to see God present in women and men of other faith traditions, races, cultures, and other categories we often allow to divide us. I hope that I am learning to see everyone I meet through the eyes of compassionate God so that I may love as They do.
Prayer is a lifelong journey of ever-deepening faith that happens when we are willing to abandon ourselves to the ways of God whose steadfast love and compassion is with us in every moment.
Blessings,
The Rev. Dr. Peter B. Stube
Priest Associate
Published on January 16, 2025