FOR MOMENTS OF PRIVATE PRAYER
How do I pray? My God, I do not know how to pray. I have only the feelings in my heart, the stirrings in my soul, and these impoverished words. Will they suffice this day? Thinking of You, I find my mind wandering, wondering about the journey I have made to reach this moment in time. I think of the burdens I carry and the rewards that have come my way. I remember the joy I have known, and the times when my vision failed. Swept along by the currents of my desires, I am adrift in the midst of life. Your psalmist says ‘Be still, and know that I am God’. So still my mind as I wait for You. Teach me to hear the silence – Your voice in me. This is my prayer today, the prayer of one who does not know how to pray. My body is weak, my thoughts distracted, my heart awash with hopes unfulfilled. Let my honesty now be my true devotion to You. Hear me now, in the stillness, and may Your still, small voice echo within and bring my spirit peace. Howard Cooper God, I thank You for this time of prayer, when I become conscious of Your presence, and lay before You my desires, my hopes and my gratitude. This consciousness, this inner certainty of Your presence is my greatest blessing. My life would be empty if I did not have it, if I lost You in the maze of the world, and if I did not return to You from time to time, to be at one with You, certain of Your existence and Your love. It is good that You are with me in all my difficulties and troubles, and that I have in You a friend whose help is sure and whose love never changes. From Forms of Prayer 1930
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