Prayer is …

Prayer is placing oneself consciously in the presence of God.  At least, that is how it begins.  It simply needs time.  Imagine it as though you were on a walk in the country; you come across a five-barred gate, the entrance to a sunlit field.  At the field's farthest edge are some willow trees and meandering slowly past them, a river whose eddies and ripples reflect the glinting light.  It is so beautiful that you just lean on the gate and gaze.  Being in the presence of God requires that kind of willingness to stop for a while and gaze on God's unutterable beauty.

But then comes a moment - it's like that country walk again - when you want to say to your companion how lovely the view is.  Words are never adequate, but if your companion is loving - as God is, through and through - then finding the exact words is not a problem.  Your companion will know what you are trying to say.  In prayer talk to God as though to a companion, to someone who knows you better than you know yourself.

There will be times in prayer when the words that others have used can be an enormous help.  Maybe they have that poetic gift that captures what you really want to say - and so, with delight, use their  words.  After all, isn't that exactly what we do when we say the Lord's Prayer?  They are his words and we make them our own; and it takes a lifetime to get anywhere near their profound simplicity.

After you have moved away from gazing at the landscape of God, and after you have begun to talk to him, there may then come a moment when you begin to share deep confidences with him - perhaps about yourself and your own sense of guilt or inadequacy, or maybe it will be about those people you love who are deeply on your heart.  You will find, as you pray, that this is a moment when nothing but honesty will do; but it's an honesty in the presence of the One whom we know as Truth, the One whom we know as Love.

The walk continues for a while in a more reflective mood, until the shadows of a passing cloud have moved on and then, as the sunlight breaks through, it's time for thanksgiving - that kind of catch-in-the-throat that accompanies true gratitude - whether it be gratitude for someone you love, or the joy of birdsong, or the way a new leaf uncurls.  It's time to pause; again, as though on a walk, when a particular flower in a hedgerow has caught your attention.  Just look at it, not possessively or greedily, but because in its own uniqueness, it exists.  And then, with memories of the view across the field to the river, with a searing recognition of honesty, with thankfulness, let your prayer move towards the needs of others.  Take them, in your heart, on your walk with God and name them in his presence.

The end of this journey is, of course, not on this side of the grave.  The end of the journey is the vision of God in Jesus Christ - as stunning, fearful, holy and loving as that is bound to be.  But as you approach that moment, see coming towards you the companion who has walked alongside you all the way, the wounded, compassionate Christ.  He it is who accompanies us all.  Is it any wonder that prayer is, in itself, a blessing?

The Rt Revd Christopher Herbert