The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on February 9, 2022 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
As much as I honor the ups and downs that are a normal part of a healthy prayer life, and as much as I have learned to accept that inconsistency can often prompt spurts of growth, I still get really excited about boring periods of regular, disciplined prayer. Just as inconsistency can teach us to “let go” of our inordinate desires, discipline can prune us of our mundane habits.
Communal prayer, such as weekly worship or daily liturgy of the hours, are especially fruitful pruning tools. Showing up, week after week, day after day, hour by hour, trims away our temptations toward thinking that our own actions, goals & plans are the driving force of the universe. Each time I stop what I am doing in order to make it to prayer on time, I remember that I am not the center of the universe. When I join my voice to the chorus of the same old psalms and songs each day or week, I remember that I am part of something larger than myself.
The call of consistency, which communal prayer demands, complements the inconsistency I often experience when I am left on my own. In this way, the container of discipline that communal prayer creates, helps to prepare us as individuals for the certain chaos that erupts in daily life. The discipline of prayer creates a net of stability that promotes the wellbeing of the one and of the community.
