On Being Powerless
One aspect of prayer is that they are often words uttered in the midst of absolute powerlessness. When we can't do anything, prayer allows us to recreate a space for liberty, for action, for our thoughts to have some meaning.
A parishioner of mine has a son who is very sick. Noone knows what is ailing him. It could be neurological; it might be TB. But the man is sick, and there is little anyone can do. He has excellent care. He is, however, in Singapore and the family is here in White Plains. What shall the parent do? Go there? It might not be wise: the parent isn't well and it would be more work for the family that is already there to care for her. Communicate to the doctors in Singapore? No - not much except repeating what we already know. So there isn't much we can do. We are fortunate enought that we can get daily reports from our loved one via the internet.
Where does this place prayer? Prayer is not merely about trying to change the situation through supernatural means. Prayer creates space in our minds to experience freedom of thought while we can't change the world. The freedom is to imagine, calibrating our liberty and powerlessness. No we can't do something, but we can at least turn our thoughts to the object and place that anxious sense in some room in our minds.
Freedom is the root of spiritual work. It is the core of spiritual maturity. Prayer is the activity of freedom in the midst of being able to do nothing. In some sense, any act that is free, deliberate and voluntary is the work of prayer - so that when Pauls says pray unceasingly he is revealing a desire for freedom that is often hidden as we oftn act and react robotically.
I have often wished I could change the way another person feels. Sometimes this is possible, but not through simple words, arguments, or convincing. The transformation of another person in relationship to us comes first through the transformation of ourselves. This self-transformation is the practice of freedom the tool of prayer develops. And by being free persons, unburdened, maganimous, generous, we allow other people also to be free persons around us. The first step to being free is imagining ourselves making choices we can make, and this is simple prayer. Yes - we are not always in charge of what goes on around us. Even The Lord's prayer ends with "thy will be done." We are not in control, but we admit it generously, hopefully, freely. In rhythm.