Pray Without Ceasing

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

(I Thessalonians 5: 16-18)

Grace:

Although each phrase in this text is fertile ground for sacred conversation, the admonition to pray without ceasing gives me particular pause.  With the exception of those traditions within Christianity that preserve forms of The Daily Office—including Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer/Vespers, and Compline—fixed times of day for prayer are not prescribed for most Christians. Pray without ceasing, then, is understood by most to mean “be steadfast or constant in prayer.” By observing an ancient Christian practice of a breath prayer, I have found a particularly lovely way to enjoy the fruits of praying without ceasing quite literally.  In meditation, I attach to my inhalation an invocation of God and to my exhalation an affirmation or petition important to my spiritual growth.  The very act of breathing thus becomes an act of prayer, its fruits revealed in subtle changes within me over time.  My current breath prayer: “Light of God, illumine me.”

Yasmina:

Grace, I also engage in daily remembrance of God—during my ritual ablutions, while performing my daily prayers, and, of course, when I first wake up and just before going to bed. Part of my daily practice is to recite the phrase “Glory, praise and thanks be to God” 100 times every morning; then I make a conscious effort throughout my day to be aware of God’s presence. There are numerous verses in the Quran which are in tune with your biblical call to pray without ceasing. One of my favorite examples is “The seven heavens and the earth and all beings therein, declare His glory: there is not a thing but celebrates His praise; and yet ye understand not how they declare His Glory!”(17:44) This verse reminds me that when I utter words of thanks and praise to God I am joining all of God’s creatures in celebration. I seek to nourish my soul by praising God when I marvel at the nature around me, prepare a meal for my family, reflect on events and make new discoveries. As I go about my daily activities, I try to maintain a state of constant awareness and remembrance of God which humbles both my soul and intellect.

Tziporah:

Friends, your personal reflections inspired by these texts remind me of the inherent tension of Jewish prayer: there is a requirement to recite specific prayers of the liturgy at fixed times and a rabbinic imperative to pray with kavannah, “intention.” As you imply, Grace, to pray without ceasing in a literal sense is not practical, and the rabbis were quite practical when establishing the norms of Jewish prayer nearly 2,000 years ago. At the same time, they suggested two modalities of spiritual expression that could be employed without limitations. First, they recommended the recitation of 100 blessings each day.  Blessings—which have a prescribed formula—serve to elevate our quotidian acts of eating, drinking and even using the bathroom.  Yasmina, I was delighted to learn from you that Muslims also include 100 praises of God in daily practice—our traditions share many common rituals designed to help us reach beyond ourselves. The early rabbis also connected with God through the study of Torah, which they considered to be a form of prayer.  This inspired one twentieth century rabbi to explain his daily practice: “When I pray, I talk to God; when I study, God talks to me.” I, too, strive to pray without ceasing by reciting prayers, blessings and Psalms—and by studying Torah—every day.

Your Comment Awaits Moderation

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "How to Join the Conversation."

Anonymous:

Christians are taught to "go make disciples” or “followers of Jesus." They want to get in that "jab" to make a point. I was raised around them all my life and that is what they are taught to do. Their way is the ONLY way just like most fanatics- and you will be damned to hell if you don't believe like them. When I became Jewish I felt like such a "load" was lifted off of me with all that condemnation crap….

Tziporah:

Although this comment from Anonymous was not left at the bottom of the post, I believe it is a response to my description of a pastor’s prayer at an interfaith luncheon, in which I wrote: “I don’t think that he intended to exclude anyone from his prayers—he must have been unaware of the presence of those who do not accept Jesus’ divinity….”  How do you want to respond to Anonymous?

Grace:

I ache for those who, like Anonymous, have had a terrible experience in the name of any religion, most especially the Christian faith I profess. Ironically, the “Christians” described by Anonymous failed to be Christ-like. My hope and prayer for you, Anonymous, is that you will find true shalom in your new faith and that, over time, you will be able to forgive those who clearly wronged you.  I pray, too, that those who offended in the name of Christianity will come to understand and live the commandments that Jesus said summed up all religious teaching: Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself.

Yasmina:

Unfortunately, there are individuals or groups in every tradition who are capable of scaring away followers of their faith. Sadly enough, it only takes one person to misrepresent a religion and send the wrong message. The better way for anyone to express their love for God is by having a beautiful character towards all people. I find this notion touchingly expressed in the Quran. Addressing the prophet Muhammad [Peace and Blessings be upon him], God says: “So by mercy from God, [O Muhammad], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude in speech and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon God. Indeed, God loves those who rely upon Him.” (3:159)

Tziporah:

At first, as you both know, I was not inclined to approve this comment, because our mission is to publish productive, interfaith conversations in cyberspace and to avoid augmenting the hostility already residing there.  That is precisely why we agreed that all comments would be moderated.  Yet you convinced me to allow Anonymous to have a voice in our conversation and you inspired me to join you in responding to this reader’s concerns. I encourage Anonymous and all readers to engage in dialogue—not diatribe—in this space.  We do not shy away from difficult conversations here, but we insist that participants in our conversation maintain a respectful tone.  Please write your comments in the first-person singular, from a position of openness and desire to learn.  Strive to approach the texts with curiosity and to question one another without judging. As the great 1^st century sage Hillel taught: “Do not judge your friends until you are in their place.” (Mishnah Avot 2:4)

Jesus: Son or Servant?

“Certainly you brought about a disastrous thing whereby the heavens are almost split asunder and the earth is split and the mountains fall crashing down that they attributed a son to The Merciful. It is not fit and proper for The Merciful that He should take a son to Himself! There is none at all in the heavens and the earth but he be one who arrives to The Merciful as a servant.”

(19:89-93, Maryam)

Tziporah:
Yasmina, I was intrigued by your remark last week that both Jesus and his mother, Mary, are considered examples of righteousness and uprightness in Islam. Chapter 19 of the Quran begins with the birth of John the Baptist and goes on to describe Jesus' birth, and to praise Mary, Abraham, Moses and a host of other prophets of the Hebrew Bible.  The chapter concludes, however, with explicit descriptions of the punishment that awaits those who do not believe in The Merciful.  I stumbled when I read these verses, which strike me as especially anti-Christian and seem to contradict the universalism of Islam. Since I cannot read classical Arabic—and because the Quran is written in poetic and homiletic form—I realize that I cannot fully appreciate its meaning.  I was hoping that you could help me by elaborating on this passage.

Yasmina:

Earlier in this same chapter, Jesus [Peace and Blessings be upon him] is quoted as saying: “I am a servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet.” (19:30). Another chapter describes a conversation that will take place between God and Jesus [Peace and Blessings be upon him] on the Day of Judgment, when God will say, “O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides God?’ He will say, ‘Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right.’”(5:116) We learn from these verses that Muslims believe that Jesus [Peace and Blessings be upon him] was a prophet who served God and embodied honorable values that all humans should follow, including the worship of God alone. Since Jesus [Peace and Blessings be upon him] is held in such high regard and altering his message is considered especially egregious, the end of Chapter 19 warns future generations from straying from the path prescribed to them by His messengers.  This universal warning is directed toward all those who deny God’s One-ness and ignore His command to worship Him alone, as well as toward those who attribute to Him that which is not befitting His Glory and Majesty. Therefore, God’s message here is not anti-Christian but anti-Trinitarian, aimed at reminding us that He transcends all His creation.

Grace:
You’ve made a good distinction, Yasmina. However, the passages from the Quran that you cited seem to imply that Christians worship Jesus as a second deity.  I suspect that a strictly literal interpretation of the phrase “Son of God” in Christian scriptures gives rise to this misconception—an understandable misconception, I might add, as Trinitarian doctrine has provoked convoluted arguments even within Christianity!  In The Gospel of John, Jesus is quoted as saying, “The Father and I are one….Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (10:30, 14:9b)  These statements, taken out of scriptural and historical context, will surely sound blasphemous or heretical. Yet I hear these words as revelatory of Divine Mystery; they point to God’s humility, through which God becomes exalted.  Through my understanding of them, I believe that God is approachable and accessible; and that God’s love is so great—even for a terribly imperfect me and for all of human-unkind—that God will give God’s very self to us.  In Jesus, Christians attempt to understand the unfathomable: Immanuel—God is with us, here, now.