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Sincerity is, perhaps, the most vitally important quality of true prayer. It is the only valid test of our faith, our hope, and our love of God. No matter how deep our meditations, nor how severe our penances, how grand our liturgy, how pure our chant, how noble our thoughts about the mysteries of God; they are all useless if we do not really mean what we say.
Thomas Merton. No Man is an Island
Late one evening a poor farmer was on his way back from market and had lost his prayerbook when the wheel of his cart had come off in the middle of the woods. He was distressed that the day would pass without his saying prayers.
So, this is the prayer he made: "I have done something very foolish, my Lord. I came away from home this morning without my prayerbook. And my memory is so bad I cannot recite a single prayer from it. So, this is what I will do. I will recite the alphabet five times very slowly and you, to whom all prayers are known, can put the letters together to form the prayers I cannot remember."
The Lord spoke to the angels: "Look, of all the prayers offered me today, this one is without doubt the best, for it came from a heart simple and sincere."
What lesson does the above story share about prayer? About religion and spirituality generally?
The institutional church is likely the place one can best see the insincerity of persons who claim devout religiousness and are not truly spiritual and the sincerity of many who have no desire to appear very religious at all and are truly spiritual.
Brian will respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Mentor. He offers retreats, workshops, and classes in such subjects as Contemplative Prayer (he trains in Visualized Praying, Centering Prayer, Christian Meditation, The Jesus Prayer, ...), Contemplative Living, A Spiritual Understanding of the Lord's Prayer, and Spiritual Use of the Scripture. See any major on-line bookseller for his book An Ache for Union.
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