One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.

*St. Luke 18.1 (NLT)

Do not forget prayer─it is the life of the soul.

*St. Nikon of Optina, Eastern Orthodox Church

A single raising of your mind to God, and a single humble genuflexion to His glory and in His honor has infinitely more value than all the treasures of the world.

*Lorenzo Scupoli, Eastern Orthodox Church

The animals met together and began to complain about humans always taking things away from them. Said the cow, "They take my milk." The hen observed, "They take my eggs." The hog complained, "They take my flesh for bacon." Said the whale, "They hunt me for oil." At last, the snail spoke, "I have something they would definitely like to take from me, if they could. Something they want more than anything else. I have time."

*Sufi Story

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How do we live lives of Prayer in societies that do not value Prayer as a useful use of time, do not even see Prayer as essential to a healthy life? We may think the religious settings would value a life of Prayer. After years of serving in churches, I have witnessed a like devaluing of Prayer, similar to that of the larger society. I have witnessed, for example, a church I served struggling to survive, and the church not once accepting my challenge to pray together over the matter. And in all the programing offered by the denominational leadership, not once did the leadership of this mainline denomination prioritize prayer as a means to revitalize, even possibly save from closing its doors for good, the church.

To stop and to pray was stressed today as the way of devout Muslims. In visiting a Muslim center of worship, with my Chaplain intern peers, the Imam spoke of the discipline of set times of prayer on a daily basis. I have long admired this structure and commitment to Prayer. The church provides the Daily Hours, or Office, as a similar structure of a Prayerful Life. Huston Smith, a devout Christian, after living in a Sufi community for a time, continued for many years the hours of Prayer practiced by Muslims, seeing this as a means by which to have his whole life gravitating to and around Prayer.

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We could ask, "Do I have time to pray?" A better question would be, "Is not Prayer as essential to the spiritual life as breathing to the body?" How many of us would expect to live a healthy life, if we did not breathe? Did not take time to eat? To drink? To sleep? Many of us see exercise as vital to our lives, and we see we have time for that. Why not Prayer?

A Prayerful life is a devotion to Prayerfulness always, even when we or not praying. Life becomes a Prayer, becomes one, unceasing Prayer. To nurture this Prayerful life, we claim we have time - better, have been given time - to pray. If we are committed to this, we will find a way to integrate it into our daily schedules. If we do not have this commitment, we will claim we do not have the time. Whatever we do, to be Prayerful always, we must see that we have been given enough time to pray consistently, and at set times, even if some of these set times are only brief intervals in a busy day. Time is not the issue. We will see we have time for Prayer, when we see we cannot afford not to see we have the time for Prayer.

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*Yeshuah (Jesus)

* * * CLOSING BLESSING * * *

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Grace and Peace to All

The Sacred in Me bows to the Sacred in You

*You are welcome to contact Brian at briankwilcox@yahoo.com .

The presentations at this site cover a long time period. Each one represents part of an on-going Pilgrimage, and the writer's ideas, practices, and experience have changed over time. This change is the quality of any living Journey. Please read with this in mind, allowing the inner Teacher to speak to you as you need at this particular time in your own living Journey. Thanks!