> Father: Thanks for another good e-mail. I'm sending by surfacepost an
e-mail I sent you about Schweitzer et.al. because for some reason the
machine did not send it.( Ah the glories of Cyberspace, eh?). There is
an Irish joke in there too. I loved your anecdote. Its an old story but
a good one. Blessings. GDVWiebe+
>
>
>
> In my posting yesterday, I quoted Archbishop Fenelon on "prayer,"
> having used his words at St. John's on Rogation Sunday.  Here is another
> of my sermons on prayer.  I make no claim to originality:  only the
> synthesis is mine, though I perhaps too often make attribution.  As I
> said yesterday, strict "Quietism" is not for me; but emphatically, as an
> individualist seeking nuggets of spirituality in many places,  I find
> little fault in Fenelon's  "semi-Quietism."  Early on, as I recall, the
> group was asked to send in sample sermons.  In a spirit of at least
> semi-detachment, I say, "Please feel free to comment as you may see
> fit."  Regards.  X  (Please notice the St. Andrew's cross.  I can pay
> attention to ritualistic niceties too!)  KnoxDuncan@...
>
>
>
> "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love,
> one for another." John 13:35.
>
> What distinguishes a Christian? The passage from John I just quoted
> provides an answer. St. Paul in the Epistle assigned for today in the
> BCP: by your behavior they shall know you. In the Gospel passage, John
> 16:16, our Lord speaks of the joy that no can take from us. A little
> booklet I picked up a long time ago spoke of the radiance of
> Christianity, and that term has meaning for me. (The booklet was written
> Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, an English priest who taught philosophy at
> Oxford in the early part of the 20th Century.) Jacks wrote: Those."who
> adopt the phrases distinctive of the Gospel but miss the radiant energy
> that transfigures their meaning.makes them ineffectual.so that in the
> long run their Christianity reduces itself to the pursuit of moral
> excellence under a system of inviolable law like the religion of the
> Book of Deuteronomy, that religion so challenged by St. Paul. The letter
> kills. The spirit gives life."
>
> Recall the medieval argument: how many angels can stand on the point of
> a pin? Today, we hear that that there is a universe of electrons within
> that same pinpoint; and so the question may not be so silly after all.
> The change in point of view, though, is not important. Pins remain the
> same, whether angels or electrons dance on the point. Likewise what is
> essential about Christ is not a doctrine that seeks to explain him, but
> the radiance of his life that for these past 2000 years has so drawn
> mankind. "The spirit that we call Christ and the spirit behind history
> are one and the same thing," a quotation that has become of one my
> favorites.
>
> How do we capture the radiance of Christ so that it reflects in our
> lives. Prayer is my suggestion. (Sunday after next, the fifth Sunday
> after Easter is Rogation Sunday, Prayer Sunday, and I want to do some
> sermons especially emphasizing prayer.) As Sabatier put it, "The history
> of prayer is the history of religion." At one end of the scaleso goes
> the verse-- "In even savage bosoms, There are longings, yearnings,
> strivings For the good they comprehend not; And their feeble hands and
> helpless, Groping blindly in the darkness, Touch God's right hand in
> that darkness And are lifted up and strengthened." At the other end of
> the scale, the poet Coleridge says, "The act of praying is the very
> highest energy of which the human mind is capable." The human soul never
> outgrows prayer. Primitive man prays crudely, ignorantly, bitterly; at
> their best, men pray intelligently, spiritually, thankfully."
>
> We think of prayer as a distinctly religious act, but "it ain't
> necessarily so," in the words of "Porgy and Bess." "Prayer is the soul's
> sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed, The motion of a hidden fire That
> trembles in the breast." Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote "Every wish,
> with God, is a prayer." When the prodigal son said, "Father, give me the
> portion of thy substance that falleth to me," he was in a real sense
> praying. He expressed his innermost ambition. We all pray all the time.
> Our bodies craves food, our minds crave knowledge, our affection craves
> friendship, our spirits crave hope. Everything we do satisfies inward
> prayers. Our prayers reflect our best and worst selves. We see Gehazi,
> with covetous eyes following Naaman to filch his wealth; David, with
> licentious heart putting Uriah at the front of the battleline. No one
> ever found heaven without prayer; and no one ever found hell, here or
> elsewhere, without prayer. So each person prays, and the prayers
> inevitably reveal the inner person.
>
> You've heard me say often enough: "Prayer is always answered, always."
> There is a psychological rule, if you will: "Desire tends to attain its
> object." Why is this? A craving organizes all the faculties of our lives
> and sets mind and hands to do its bidding. Prayer habitually precedes
> thought and work. We think and labor because in our innermost heart we
> have first prayed, because some desire calls our minds, "Come, bring me
> this!" Robert Burns wrote: "E'en then a wish (I mind its pow'r), A wish
> that to my latest hour Shall strongly heave my breast, That I for poor
> auld Scotland's sake Some usefu' plan or book could make, Or sing a song
> at least." That Burns did right well!  Dominant desire gathers up
> scattered faculties, concenters the mind, nerves the will, and drives
> hard toward the issue. As John Burroughs said, "If you have a thing in
> mind, it is not long be fore you have it in hand."
>
> If a person craves vice, he finds it on every side. To the prodigal son,
> the inheritance that was meant to be his blessing proved to be his
> curse. Not only the physical but also the spiritual world aligns
> themselves to our prayers. So many of the speeches addressed to God are
> ineffectual because they do not express the inward set of our lives.
> What we pray with our lips does not correspond with our craving. A lazy
> student can pray to be learned; an idler can pray to be rich; but such
> prayers achieve little. Our outward petition is denied, but our desire,
> our real prayer, is granted. Many complain of unanswered prayer, but the
> great disasters come from answered prayers. The Bible is full of such
> prayers. When the prodigal in the far country came to himself, friends
> gone, reputation gone, willpower almost gone, to find himself poor,
> hungry, feeding swine, he suffered from the consequence of an answered
> prayer: his dominant desire had been fulfilled. Lot wanted Sodom, and he
> got it. Judas desired the 30 pieces of silver, and obtained them. Psalm
> 106:15: "He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul."
> Prayer is serious business, able to tear loose the moorings of life.
> (St. Augustine)
>
> A cursory reading of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount may
> awaken surprise because prayer is not mentioned. From what I've said,
> how could that be? Our Lord sums up the blessings of the spiritual life
> and omits prayer?  Read more deeply. Prayer is there in one of the
> greatest descriptions to be found in the Bible. "Blessed are they that
> hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."
> (Matthew 5:6) Hunger and thirst is prayer. A radiance enveloped our
> Lord, so intently did he pray in Gethsemane, confirming God's plan for
> his life, and the cup did not pass from him. "Verily, verily I say unto
> you, That ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into
> joy.and your joy no man taketh from you." Our Lord reflected the
> radiance of God, and we too, as children of God, may become candles of
> the Lord.



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