Prayer flags were flying at the Ratna Ling Retreat center, and I wondered, but not for the first time, what is prayer? Read more.
prayer
An Episcopalian Says Kaddish for Her Jewish Aunt
My Aunt Grace, who died in January, was Jewish. Most everyone else in her family had remained Christian or had moved on to atheism, secularism or indifference. The question was, how does a bunch of Christians and agnostics say a parting prayer for a Jew? Read more.
Book Openers: I Still Haven’t Figured Out How to Pray — But I’m in Good Company
“I am a failure at prayer,” author Barbara Brown Taylor confesses . . . Now there’s a woman after my own heart.
Simone Weil on Prayer — First, Pay Attention. Book Openers
Simone Weil’s life was a short one, but her startling insights into the nature of God and God’s relationship to humanity pertain today. Read more.
Sister Barbara Hazzard on How to Pray Without Words
What is prayer anyway? I haven’t a clue. These days, when I go to pray, I often find I haven’t a thing to say to God. Every tradition I’ve come in contact with in all my years as a religion reporter and writer recommends — no, insists upon — prayer. Yet right now I don’t know how to do it. I don’t even know why to do it.