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 January 30, 2026 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
The natural rhythm of the life of prayer ebbs and flows. There are ups and downs, deep valleys and tops of mountains. Both the valleys and the mountain tops can be exhausting. Through the flux in the flow of prayer, persistence makes a difference. Whether we face an up or a down, persist. When we are elated and when we are exhausted, persist. Whether prayer feels dry and dull or rich and luminous, persist.
We must persist and are capable of persistence, not necessarily because of some great reservoir of personal grit and strength, but because of the always and already flowing reservoir of the Love of God that undergirds and upholds and permeates all of reality. When we persist in prayer, we dip a cup into this great source of goodness, truth, strength, and beauty. When we sip from the font of Love, we are equipped and capable to persist in prayer.
The valleys may be low, the mountains may be high, the stretches in between may be long, and yet, prayer persists, like a living stream of life-giving water, sourced by the most persistent force of all, the Love of the Holy One. As we journey together with our brothers and sisters, indeed, with all of creation, may we persist in upholding the common good of all, sourced in our resistance by the persistence of the Holy One working in us through our prayer and action.
