Decentering the Self ~ Maddie Willis

After re-reading the last paragraph of the first chapter in The Phenomenology of Prayer several times, I have established a connection between the discussions in class and the readings. During the class discussions about the Cosmos, the “I” in the center learns that there are other objects and subjects that create chaos in the Cosmos or the world around them. When this happens, the body learns to decenter itself from the rest of the world, which relates to the last paragraph because decentering oneself is the only way to become a better person through prayer. Learning to put others before you is something that many people struggle with when it comes to praying. Most of the time people just pray to ask for help for themselves, but learning to pray for others is a gift. In class we talked about how each of us has our own projects that are usually centered around us. Merold Westphal says that praying is learning to “abandon the project of being the center” so we can mature in prayer to learn that decentering oneself is a gift of a lifetime. 

After making this connection, I have been thinking about what it takes to decenter myself, and I have come to the conclusion that in time I will become more mature in prayer to achieve the goal: being a better person. But why is it so hard to fully decenter ourselves from the world and put others before us?