Anam Cara

The Prayer of Being

In the Christian tradition, there have been many different theories of prayer. One predominant explanation tended to consider prayer as withdrawal from the world. Away from distraction and confusion, prayer is the stillness of pure attention to the Divine. In its extreme form, this tendency encourages passivity and quietism. The other main theory understands prayer as action and engaged presence: “laborare est orare”—to work is to pray. Perhaps we do not need to choose between them because they may be false alternatives. Everybody should attempt both these forms of prayer, particularly the form they find uncongenial. Exclude nothing. Maybe it would also be possible to bring them together if we speak of the prayer of being. At its deepest level, creation is continuously at prayer. The most vital and creative prayer is always happening within us, even though we never fully hear it. Now and again, we catch the echoes of the music of inner prayer.