Breath who guides from deep within,
may our lives of mumbled praying
end with Heaven’s clear “Amen.”
---Terry W. York, 2006
In this beautiful new hymn, which guides us into worship
with an invocation of the Trinity—God, Christ, Breath—we are called to consider the deep mystery that is
prayer. Well. At least, to me, prayer is often deep mystery. I think I am clear
on some differences between prayer and wishing, and prayer and magic…although I
am certain that in moments of crisis I might act less on points of clarity and
more on base instinct.
When I think of magical prayer, I think of the now-famous
instruction Dorothy was given in L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel Wonderful Wizard
of Oz:
Then close your eyes and tap
your heels together three times. And think to yourself, there’s no place like
home.
As for the power of wishing, who doesn’t immediately burst
into song on hearing the lovely waltz from the 1950 Disney animated film Cinderella?
A
dream is wish your heart makes
when
you’re fast asleep.
But prayer must hold more for believers. More than lining up
words in some incantational magic, more than wishing and dreaming what will
delight us. The prayer I aspire to is the dynamic partnership between our
searching and God’s guiding, a holy hide-and-seek where God will always intend,
more and more, to be found.
More and more.
