Paradox of Prayer

Paradox of Prayer

Class Reading: Bruce Benson and Norman Wirzba/The Phenomenology of Prayer

November 22, 2015

The first line of the Lord’s prayer recognizes God’s immanence and transcendence. God is a heavenly Father. The one who prays truly recognizes, like Augustine, that God is closer to him than he is to himself, while also understanding, like Solomon, that even the highest heaven cannot contain God in all of His glory. Prayer is always directed at someone or something. It must have a recipient toward which it is directed and can never be done without mediation. However, “to spell out that direction fully proves ultimately impossible and even undesirable.”(7) Prayer is a dialogue between two beings; yet the intention of this dialogue is ambiguous and indiscernible. It is an incarnational activity that “delivers us into our flesh so that we can bring the infinite to bear within time.”(8) Through prayer, we understand that we are not ego’s but rather “gifted.” Humans have been gifted with the privilege to communicate with the divine. In Mark Cauchi’s mind, this implied that humans are “both like and unlike God.”(8) Prayer suggests that there is a limit between humanity and the divine while simultaneously suggesting that this limit has been crossed by the very act of praying.