As my church's organist, I usually don't officiate, but I frequently give the homily during Morning Prayer. During this interim period between priests I am working on a series of homilies based on the prayers found in The Book of Common Prayer. I have named the series, "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi" after the phrase coined by Prosper of Aquitaine, a disciple of Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century. I will be sharing these homilies or portions of them in this series. Before doing so, however, I would like to explore the topic of prayer and the manner in which I am using Prosper's phrase.
WHAT IS PRAYER?
Prayer is defined in many ways: a conversation with a divine or spiritual other, contemplation, intercession, meditation, supplication, worship to name a few. Prayer is many things to many people. To define prayer, I am compelled to speak of it from a personal perspective in order to talk about it in a broader context.
FOXHOLES
What jumped into my mind as I began thinking about prayer is the saying, "There are no atheists in a foxhole." While the veracity of that saying is questionable, what brings this admittedly odd thought to my mind is that the foxhole represents the isolation that we humans face if left to fend for ourselves. Such a situation calls to mind the Impulse of Religion, the need of each other or the need of an other as a means of coping with an unembellished reality and the frailty of existence which we mostly go about ignoring until we find ourselves in one of life's foxholes.
Of course most people don't need a foxhole to bring them to prayer. The dramatic image of the foxhole, however, underscores the influence that human experience has on our attempts to reach beyond ourselves in order to appeal to and access a power beyond our collective and personal capabilities. Prayer projects one to the position of a observer of a condition that is either personal or involving others or both. All prayer has this projecting, observational quality.
To carry this analogy a bit further, the foxhole experience for the person on side A is like or likely to be a similar experience as the person on side B is having. They may be considered enemies, but they are entangled by virtue of their mutual situations that has placed them in such a miserable sympathetic position. Each understands the other's sense of deadly responsibility, misery, loneliness, vulnerability and desire for an end to being in a foxhole. Over time and if in close proximity, their conditional mutuality can lead to a conversant camaraderie, even if for brief periodic moments, as was noted in accounts of those stuck in foxholes and the trenches of World War I.
ENTANGLEMENT
Entanglement is a term associated with Quantum Physics in which particles interact with each other even if divided by great distances so that if one particle reacts to a stimulus the other also reacts even though it wasn't subjected to a stimulus. That's as far as I will delve into quantum physics, but entanglement phenomena would appear to have relevance in the macro world we live in. If this phenomena exists on a micro level, does it not carry over and exist on a macro/human level? Science has yet to explain why two particles theoretically separated by light years will react simultaneously if only one particle is being stimulated. What is their connection?
I believe prayer intuitively expresses this mysterious phenomenon in the form of a person being affected in some reciprocal manner by reaching out to one another by appeal or prayer. One can call this reciprocal reaching out intentionality. Naturally, this raises the question of whether prayer is effective.
It is to those who experience it as such and that's as far I can go regarding its effectiveness.
There is no scientific proof that prayer is effective, but then again, there is no empirical answer to the question why particles at the quantum level react when separated by great distances at the same time or the ultimate why of me or the why of you; or the ultimate why I am sitting at my computer writing this post or why you are reading it at this particular time on the other side of the globe, and so it goes on and on. The simple, unexplainable inference is that we are interconnected in various ways and at various levels with each other and the entire cosmos.
A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
As a Christian, I have come to see prayer as an intimate experience that oddly is not so much projected out into the macrocosm as it is projected into the microcosm of my own being. I have come to appreciate that at the core of my being lies a repository of human experience embedded in my made-in-the-image-of God-self that I share with others . I believe this is true for all humans and for all creation. In other words, connecting with my own microcosmic (personal) experiences ultimately puts me in connection to that Being in which we all live and move and have our being.
This is not always how I understood prayer. For most of my life, prayer was something I projected out and "up" to an imaginary realm of God and an imaginary image of what I thought God must be. I say imaginary because that was the only way I could visualize who God is and where God resides. I have since moved away from such imaginary visualizations and pay more attention to what I feel.
Today, prayer for me is personally directed to the seat of my feelings, the heart which I will talk about further along in these posts. For me, God is not only out there and all about but is both intimate and imminent - a heartbeat away and as near as my own breath.
I find that prayer deepens me as I get older. I find myself easily conversant with the God-particle of my being. I think this is because I have come to experience many things and I am now at an age and in a position to examine the value of those experiences as the transfiguring moments they were which have brought about a deeper understanding and appreciation of the life I am part of. Prayer comes quickly and is done quickly. I'm a minimalist when it comes to prayer, perhaps that is because I am influenced by my Episcopalian affiliation.
I belong to the prayer group in my church. When there is a request for prayer, the information is about as sparse as it can be unless the person making the request wants to forward specific information about a need, but for the most part the only information the members of this group receives is a first name and request for comfort, guidance, healing, peace, and God's presence.
That's it, and that's all we need. We don't need specifics. I don't need to know who the person is in any detail beyond being a person; an individual made in the image of God like myself. All I need is a name, and a request for prayer. After all the named person shares this life with me and whatever her or his need is I have only to delve into my inner experiences with doubt, suffering, anxiety, the will to carry on experienced in faith, the longing for resolution experienced in hope, and the type of pain experienced in deep love will fill in the blanks; for these feelings are ever-present in a request for prayer. And in no time at all, I am finding myself one with that person and the person's loved ones which leads me to breathe a word of prayer for all concerned.
CORPORATE PRAYER
What about corporate prayer?
As an Episcopalian and part of the broader Anglican Communion, I am very fond of the Book of Common Prayer. It's prayers; particularly, its collects are well-crafted, saying a great deal in a few short statements. The prayer book is, itself, a study in prayer and its very forms.
Prayers in the Book of Common Prayer are brought to the level of a fine art. If you want to know what we Episcopalians believe and how we see the world; how we understand God, how we relate to Christ Jesus, read our prayers. What I find intriguing in corporate prayer and especially in the well-crafted prayers found in liturgical services known as collects, litanies, suffrages, and other prayers of intercession and thanksgiving is that they shape the perspective of the person who prays them.
Formal prayer is not everyone's cup of tea. The notion of spontaneous prayer has been promoted by some as being more heartfelt and more directed in its intentionality to a specific need of a person or congregational concern. Let me be clear that I do not object to spontaneous prayer, but I would point out that such prayers seem, at least to me, to have a form and prescribed manner that identifies them as being spontaneous which in turn, permits one to readily identify the person's denominational affiliation.
Formal prayer runs the risk of being said with little or no thought, but for those of us who use them regularly, we know when they're missing or a word is changed, which is to say that these prayers become part of who we are which brings me to Prosper's statement.
LEX ORANDI, LEX CREDENDI
The law of prayer (is) the law of belief.
Where was Prosper of Aquitaine when the Council of Nicea met?
He was on to something that the council could have used; that prayer and our beliefs are enmeshed. Lex orandi, lex credendi is a bit ambiguous. What Prosper was getting at is that how we pray (and he gives prayer a broad definition that includes liturgical worship) shapes what we believe. Being equivalent statements, however, permits one to reverse the order and conclude that what we believe shapes our prayers and the way we Christians worship.
BELIEVE AND FAITH
As most of my readers are aware of by now, I am cautious when it comes to using words like belief and believes in my theological musings, but one cannot escape its relevance in Western Christianity and Western thought. To recap my cautious approach to using belief-language in theological discussion is that it skews the meaning of faith-language (trusting without knowing) found in the original Greek texts of the New Testament where faith is used as a verb, which then became translated in Germanic and Latin languages as believe. In its Greek verb form, faith is not synonymous with believe.
Having said that, believe has become the predominant term used to express the active form of faith in Western thought. It was obviously used in Western Christianity by Proper's time in the fifth century. What is important to understand is that the reason for the odd correlation between believe and acting in faith is the connection both terms have with the heart. Believe is Germanic in origin and is etiologicaly connected to beloved,as something loved in the heart. Credo or credendi is also etiologicaly connected to cor, the Latin word for heart. Faith as trust is also more a matter of the heart than of the head. The problem is that the terms believe and belief have evolved in Western thought to become matters of the mind rather than the heart.
A MATTER OF THE HEART
Lex orandi, lex credendi is best understood as a matter of the heart. The equivalency of these two terms allows for a circular interplay between them. What brings us to prayer are our deepest, heartfelt needs that engage the affective elements of life in Christ described by Paul: faith, hope, and love. When cognitively engaged, these elements bring us to God in the form of prayer where heart and mind meld intentionally. As such, prayer becomes the deepest expression of faith. Prayer is the most personal form of creed. Ultimately, prayer shapes one from the heart up.
COLLECTED
The same principles mentioned above are involved in corporate prayer. The term Collect is used to describe a prayer in liturgical worship that is a collection of short petitions intended to be said in a collective setting such as a congregation. One of the subtle and most important aspects of these ancient and thought-through liturgical prayers is that they break down the ideological barriers that separate us. They collect us as one heart, one mind, and direct our collective attention and intention in common purpose. They have been said for centuries and remain relevant in every age they are said and that is why I find them so meaningful and important in this age.
This coming together in prayer is demonstrated in the Episcopal Churches I know and in most liturgically-based denominations. The Episcopal Church was once noted as being "The Republicans at Prayer." That is no longer the case.
The Episcopal Church in the U.S. is very diverse today and in those brief and treasured moments of worship an interesting phenomenon occurs. No matter what our political, social, economic, or even our religious views are we become collected as a family of faith directing our intentions in common purpose as expressed in our ancient, traditional prayers, and that is a beautiful thing to behold and be part of.
Prayers that are thoughtfully written serve as a catechism on life, a life grounded in source of our being, God, and for Christians, grounded in the experience of Christ Jesus. Ultimately, such prayers, as do all prayers, finds their effectiveness in shaping who we are as individuals and collectively as a world.
Until next time, stay faithful.
He was on to something that the council could have used; that prayer and our beliefs are enmeshed. Lex orandi, lex credendi is a bit ambiguous. What Prosper was getting at is that how we pray (and he gives prayer a broad definition that includes liturgical worship) shapes what we believe. Being equivalent statements, however, permits one to reverse the order and conclude that what we believe shapes our prayers and the way we Christians worship.
BELIEVE AND FAITH
As most of my readers are aware of by now, I am cautious when it comes to using words like belief and believes in my theological musings, but one cannot escape its relevance in Western Christianity and Western thought. To recap my cautious approach to using belief-language in theological discussion is that it skews the meaning of faith-language (trusting without knowing) found in the original Greek texts of the New Testament where faith is used as a verb, which then became translated in Germanic and Latin languages as believe. In its Greek verb form, faith is not synonymous with believe.
Having said that, believe has become the predominant term used to express the active form of faith in Western thought. It was obviously used in Western Christianity by Proper's time in the fifth century. What is important to understand is that the reason for the odd correlation between believe and acting in faith is the connection both terms have with the heart. Believe is Germanic in origin and is etiologicaly connected to beloved,as something loved in the heart. Credo or credendi is also etiologicaly connected to cor, the Latin word for heart. Faith as trust is also more a matter of the heart than of the head. The problem is that the terms believe and belief have evolved in Western thought to become matters of the mind rather than the heart.
A MATTER OF THE HEART
Lex orandi, lex credendi is best understood as a matter of the heart. The equivalency of these two terms allows for a circular interplay between them. What brings us to prayer are our deepest, heartfelt needs that engage the affective elements of life in Christ described by Paul: faith, hope, and love. When cognitively engaged, these elements bring us to God in the form of prayer where heart and mind meld intentionally. As such, prayer becomes the deepest expression of faith. Prayer is the most personal form of creed. Ultimately, prayer shapes one from the heart up.
COLLECTED
The same principles mentioned above are involved in corporate prayer. The term Collect is used to describe a prayer in liturgical worship that is a collection of short petitions intended to be said in a collective setting such as a congregation. One of the subtle and most important aspects of these ancient and thought-through liturgical prayers is that they break down the ideological barriers that separate us. They collect us as one heart, one mind, and direct our collective attention and intention in common purpose. They have been said for centuries and remain relevant in every age they are said and that is why I find them so meaningful and important in this age.
This coming together in prayer is demonstrated in the Episcopal Churches I know and in most liturgically-based denominations. The Episcopal Church was once noted as being "The Republicans at Prayer." That is no longer the case.
The Episcopal Church in the U.S. is very diverse today and in those brief and treasured moments of worship an interesting phenomenon occurs. No matter what our political, social, economic, or even our religious views are we become collected as a family of faith directing our intentions in common purpose as expressed in our ancient, traditional prayers, and that is a beautiful thing to behold and be part of.
Prayers that are thoughtfully written serve as a catechism on life, a life grounded in source of our being, God, and for Christians, grounded in the experience of Christ Jesus. Ultimately, such prayers, as do all prayers, finds their effectiveness in shaping who we are as individuals and collectively as a world.
Until next time, stay faithful.
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