This blog, during Lent, 2025, is for those who want to either learn how to pray, get comfortable praying, or who want to explore a deeper prayer life. Over the next few weeks, we'll look at different kinds of prayers and explore how others have looked to prayer for comfort, guidance, strength and a desire to draw closer to that Supreme Power that loves us all. For Christians and many others, that Supreme power is God. But however you identify to whom you pray, the important thing is to do it, and to draw ever closer to the Divine.
In his book, Prayer, Does It Make Any Difference?, author Philip Yancey talks of how every civilization and culture throughout history has found their own way to pray. Even societies that do not acknowledge God, find a way to meet this need. In Moscow in the 1950s, a portrait of Lenin was set up where Christians used to keep their icons. Pravda even ran this advice:
If you meet with difficulties in your work, or if you suddenly doubt your abilities, think of him – of Stalin – and you will find the confidence you need. If you feel tired in an hour when you should not, think of him - of Stalin – and your work will go well. If you are seeking a correct decision, think of him – of Stalin – and you will find that decision.[1]
While I cannot imagine that a mass-murderer like Stalin would give healthy spiritual insight, this illustrates that need for connecting with that which is beyond ourselves.
Anne Lamott wrote, in Help, Thanks, Wow, Three Essential Prayers, “Let’s not get bogged down on whom or what we pray to. Let me just say prayer is communication from our hearts to the great mystery or Goodness…to the animating energy of love we are sometimes bold enough to believe in; to something unimaginably big and not us.”[2]
So prayer is a direct connection to the divine.
There are many different ways to pray and to connect in prayer, both passive and active. In these challenging and often unjust times, this is a good thing to remember. Prayer can be simple. Just a line to open the conversation with God or start one (if you’ve never met.) Here’s one suggestion:
O God,
[1] Yancey, Prayer, Does It Make Any Difference?, p 24
[2] Lamott, Anne, Help, Thanks, Wow, The Tree Essential Prayers (Riverhead Books, 2012) p 2
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