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 October 9, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
Assuming that prayer has something to do with an ongoing process of connecting to the Life of Spirit, and further recognizing that life has a way of constantly moving forward, as well as of perpetually advancing in cycles, we could make a claim that prayer is persistent.
Part of my own perspective about prayer as persistent comes from lived experience of perceiving God in pursuit. The constant, all-enveloping force of Love, with which the Holy One pursues each and every one of us, all the time, everywhere, meeting us, moment after moment, exactly where we are prompts a posture of prayer as persistent.
Pressing, exerting pressure, nudging, guiding, leading on, expanding, deepening—to the extent that we sense any of these loving actions of the Holy One, we know prayer as persistent.
If faith is, in part, to place our trust and hope in the patterns of goodness and love that envelop us, then the persistence of prayer might be a reflection of the Holy One’s faith in us—that we are worthy and dignified in our being, showered with loving attention and presence from God.
In response to this constant gift of grace, even when we are tired, may we persist in prayer. Even when we are overwhelmed, may we persist in our prayer. Whether things are terribly bad or wonderfully good, may we persist in prayer. Just as we are pursued by a loving Presence, may we persist in prayer!
