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 September 11, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
Over different time periods and diverse geographic locations, prayer is quite literally an instructive tool, especially among mostly illiterate populations. The sacred acts of writing and memorizing holy texts can be a mode of educating a populace. For instance, many old church hymns, often with five, six and seven verses, were used to teach theological content in populations where regular school attendance may have been sparse. In this literal sense, prayer is informative.
Prayer can also be informative in a socio-cultural sense. Across generations and among diverse groups of people, the content of prayer informs others about our ways of living and our modes of thinking and believing. Through the lens of encounter, prayer helps us to know one another.
It also helps us to know ourselves. As we dedicate regular time and resources to the work of learning texts, practicing rituals, and opening ourselves up to the mystery of the Holy One, we traverse the many, complex layers of our being and doing. In doing this, as St. Benedict would say, the work of God, we become informed from our deepest depths and widest breadths about who we are in Love, especially as we relate to the Holy one, in whom there is no end to the depth and breadth of informing.
When our prayer is informative, may we receive guidance that points toward healing and wholeness in the immense power of knowing we are Beloved!
