the best prayer
"The best prayer is the one in which there is the most love. Adoration, wordless admiration, that is the most eloquent form of prayer: that wordless admiration which contains the most passionate declaration of love."
Charles de Foucauld
10 Responses to “the best prayer”
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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That quote made me stop and think this morning in work. Thank you!
I disagree! [the boat rocks]
Loud stomping, drum banging, vocal adoration beats it hands down everytime.
… and we dooo adore you Maggie
Maybe both, Mike – noisy stomping banging rock can be wordless, you know… Maybe this could be interpreted as an excuse for a serious “wig-out” jam? (and, you’d get to play fiddly bits, not just soft strumming…)
That’s why dancing a prayer is so beautiful when you can’t think of the right words to use.
How about painting a prayer???
I have been doing some reading about Christian mysticism recently which talks a lot about ‘union with god’- in the hurly burly of work/home/life this remains a very distant and remote concept which I cannot fully grasp. However this idea of wordless adoration being an eloquent form of prayer offers new ways of thinking about this which I will reflect on
thanks,
Rodney
PS this is my first post- I hope I do not sound too pie in the sky!!!!
Just posted a story I remembered!
Did you know we posted that exact quote last week! It’s a winner!
Blessings to you this Holy Week
Chris and TC
Would you please pray for a little bboy named David??? He is in critical condition right now.
His mother keeps a blog here:
http://sxymma.blogspot.com/
I am not sure what the best prayer is, I will have to think about that. I suppose that the best kind of prayer is when Jesus thought about the type of praying that is now known as the Our Father. I know that prayer can do anything.
I was in the throes of working myself up into a paroxysm of guilt and inadequacy because (as my friends might guess) “Wordless” is not something that comes easily at all…but then I had what felt like an “ahah” moment when I realised you can also /do/ love. Perhaps that’s some comfort for those of us whose minds tend to run on words?