Crafton: Prayer

Crafton: Praying for Others

“I can compare prayer to a river-strong, clean, swift, carrying everything along in its powerful current. When I pray, I have stepped into the river and allowed it to carry me. When I pray for you, I have taken your hand and together, we step into the river and let it carry us with power.” —Barbara Crafton in The AlsoLife (Morehouse 2016), p. 128.

 Episcopal priest and well-known speaker and writer Barbara Crafton taught us a different view of prayer at a Lenten retreat at St. Mark’s about her book, The Courage to Grow Old. Hers was a surrender prayer, a prayer of few words, feeling the power of prayer as we pray, bringing others with us into prayer. It is prayer that comes with sitting, swimming, or walking in silence and simply waiting for the Spirit’s lead.

Swimming once was a favorite exercise. I could indeed visualize those in my prayers swimming or walking in the water with me. However, Crafton gives us an even more powerful image of swimming in a river or ocean, where we surrender to let the current or Spirit move us.

Crafton also writes about prayer as connecting ourselves and aligning ourselves with the energy of the love of God. Prayer is love, loving God, ourselves, and our neighbor.  

Some people imagine Jesus in prayer, walk with or carry friends to Jesus, and leave the person they pray for in Jesus’ arms. I often used this prayer image when praying for my children and grandchildren.

For some, kneeling at the rail for the Eucharist is an image used in prayer. We can imagine walking with or bringing our friends in need in prayer to that rail, and kneeling with and beside them.

This image also helps us pray for enemies or those with whom we are having difficulty. It is hard to keep hate in our hearts when our enemies kneel beside us, waiting as we are for the body and blood of Christ.

Surrender

 Surrender

“The boat I travel in is called Surrender. My two oars are instant forgiveness and gratitude—complete gratitude for the gift of life. I am thankful for the experience of this life, for the opportunity to dance. I get angry, I get mad, but as soon as I remind myself to put my oars in the water, I forgive.”—Balbir Mathur, inwardoutward.org, Daily Quote, October 19, 2016—Heron Dance interview (Issue 11).

As president of Trees for Life, Balbir Mathur planted 200 million morning trees in developing countries for 30 years. I thank the daily words from Inward Outward from the Church of the Saviour in Washington for introducing him to me. Mathur’s extraordinary life is a story of constant surrender: immigrating to Wichita from India with no family contacts, mowing lawns, becoming world-known in business, developing a mysterious illness, leaving his business career, and starting an international nonprofit to plant trees in developing countries. The morning trees survive in dry conditions. Their leaves are nutritious in vitamins A and C and calcium, and their seeds are used to purify water.

Mathur’s words are indeed words of peace that I hear in many disciplines across all religious barriers. When I can forgive, when I am filled with gratitude, I stay out of trouble and find peace. What an image. We are in a boat called Surrender, and our two oars are gratitude and forgiveness that keep that boat moving on course. I can imagine rowing on a river, not too big of a river and not too big of a boat. I will need other passengers who can take over the oars when I become too tired, who will read to me and let me rest or just allow me to soak in the scenery. 

Rick Plumlee, The Wichita Eagle, May 10, 2014.

Making Unconditional Love Visible

Loving and Making God’s Unconditional Love Visible

“Whenever, contrary to the world’s vindictiveness, we love our enemy, we exhibit something of the perfect love of God.. Whenever we forgive instead of getting angry at one another, bless instead of cursing one another, tend to one another’s wounds instead of rubbing salt into them, hearten instead of discouraging one another, give hope instead of driving one another to despair, hug instead of harassing one another, welcome instead of cold-shouldering one another, thank instead of criticizing one another, praise instead of maligning one another...in short, whenever we opt for and not against one another, we make God’s unconditional love visible; we are diminishing violence and giving birth to a new community.”—Henri Nouwen in You Are the Beloved (Convergent Books 2017).

My image is that I am a loving person.

Nouwen proves me wrong.

 I rarely love my enemy or anyone who harms me, my family, or my friends.

 I am just scraping the surface of forgiveness.

I less frequently bless, as my excuse is that deacons are not supposed to bless! Sounds like a Pharisee!

I know subtle methods of rubbing salt into wounds.

I also have mastered the cold shoulder.

 I often forget to thank others for what they do. 

I try to encourage others, and I try to offer hope, especially to those grieving. However, I could do better by encouraging and offering hope to those with whom I disagree.

So, Nouwen has given us a Lenten list of loving and unloving practices to pray that the Spirit will change in us.

I also have a part. I am to stop and pause when I have the opportunity to show love or not show love in a multitude of daily situations.

Pray for me. Let us pray for each other.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/