The introduction to The Phenomenology of Prayer was so rich in captivating ideas. I loved how the author described prayer. His description of the transformative power of prayer to "change our passions, so that we learn to live and love differently" is one that caught my eye. He goes on to state that "prayer inspires and structures the human life so that it becomes faithful and true." I found these statements to be resoundingly true in my own life. My heart is so fickle, so quick to be unfaithful and untrue to the God I say that I desire to have at the center of my life; so hasty to place my own concerns above even Him. Prayer seems to kind of reverse this unfortunate tendency of mine and I find that the faithfulness of my heart often seems to increase proportionately with the frequency of my prayers.
The introduction also acquaints us with the idea of prayer as the exchanging of two gazes. This caught my attention because a gaze is something intimate, steady, and enduring. We gaze when something totally captivates us and has our undivided attention. What strikes me is that the author doesn't use glance, but uses the word gaze. Because of the fickle heart of mine previously mentioned, I have found myself praying that my glance would become a steady gaze. Steffany Gretzinger, a Christian musician I listen to, once spoke about prayer in a similar way. She described it as a gaze and pointed out that the longer you gaze into someone's eyes, the more you start to breathe like them. Oh to breathe in rhythm with God!
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