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Prayer, meditation and contemplation in Christianity

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Praying to the Gods or spirits predates history and is a widespread feature of innumerable religions, and also of less organized belief, including animism. The classical pagan Gods were frequent objects of prayers, which generally included praise and/or requests that were structurally very similar to, or even indistinguishable from, much modern prayer by Amita Buddhists, Islamists, Hindus, Christians, etc.

Prayer is an important theme in Christianity, and there are several different forms of prayer.[1]

Prayer in the New Testament

Main article: Prayer in the New Testament

Prayer in the New Testament is presented as a positive command (Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). The people of God are challenged to include prayer in their everyday life, even in the busy struggles of marriage (1 Corinthians 7:5) as it is thought to bring the faithful closer to God.

Throughout the New Testament, prayer is shown to be God's appointed method by which the faithful obtain what he has to bestow (Matthew 7:7–11; Matthew 9:24–29; Luke 11:13).

Prayer, according to the Book of Acts, can be seen at the first moments of the church (Acts 3:1). The apostles regarded prayer as the most important part of their life (Acts 6:4; Romans 1:9; Colossians 1:9). As such, the apostles frequently incorporated verses from Psalms into their writings. Romans 3:10–18 for example is borrowed from Psalm 14:1–3 and other psalms.

Thus, due to this emphasis on prayer in the early church, lengthy passages of the New Testament are prayers or canticles (see also the Book of Odes), such as the Prayer for forgiveness (Mark 11:25–26), the Lord's Prayer, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), the Benedictus (Luke 1:68–79), Jesus' prayer to the one true God (John 17), exclamations such as, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:3–14), the Believers' Prayer (Acts 4:23–31), "may this cup be taken from me" (Matthew 26:36–44), "Pray that you will not fall into temptation" (Luke 22:39–46), Saint Stephen's Prayer (Acts 7:59–60), Simon Magus' Prayer (Acts 8:24), "pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men" (2 Thessalonians 3:1–2), and Maranatha (1 Corinthians 16:22).

The Early Church

Personal Prayer

Since the early Church was made up of many with a Jewish lineage and history, a large part of the private prayers of its members followed typical Hebrew format.[citation needed] Praying three times a day became the daily office of the person, though, instead of a community encouraged practice.[clarification needed] In the gospels, Jesus is recorded as saying that when you pray, you should not try to impress people with your piety.[citation needed]

Public Prayer

Group of Christians praying in the cave at Yeoju Pyungkang Jeil Conference Center near Yeoju, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.

Prayer was frequently found in the gatherings of the early church, offered frequently throughout the worship service with the Lord's Prayer taking its place as the anchor - a common ritual in each gathering.

Liturgical

Elements of the oldest Christian liturgies may be found in liturgies such as the Roman Catholic Tridentine Mass,the modern Mass, the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, the Anglican Holy Eucharist service, and Lutheran Divine Service.

Seasonal prayers

Seasonal prayers are found in the Roman Catholic Breviary, which provides prayer for each liturgical season including Advent, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, as well as the other parts of the liturgical year. The Breviary developed over the centuries. Different religious orders sometimes have their own breviaries.

Prayer to saints

Prayer to saints: in Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, and Orthodox tradition, petitions are addressed to saints in heaven. Catholics distinguish between latria prayer of sacrifice due to God alone, and dulia, or prayer of praise due only to a lesser figure such as a saint. [citation needed]

Other Christians, mostly Protestants, reject the notion of prayer to the saints. The reformer Huldrych Zwingli admitted that he had offered prayers to the saints until his reading of the Bible convinced him that this was idolatrous.[2]

See Communion of Saints and Intercession of Saints.

Prayer for the dead

Roman Catholics and Anglicans believe that prayers for the dead are efficacious; for this reason, requiem Masses are offered for the repose of the faithful departed.[citation needed]

Eastern Orthodoxy rejects the notion of Purgatory, but offers prayers for the dead asking God to have mercy upon them; in particular, that tradition believes that Christians who have died remain part of the Church, and as such are both able to pray and to receive the benefits of prayer for them, whatever those may be. [citation needed]

Protestants have historically rejected the notion of prayer for the dead, believing that such prayers are unbiblical and cannot affect the fate of departed souls. Lutherans do not believe prayers should be prayed for or to the departed, and that God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is only to be prayed to.[3]

Prayerbooks

There is no one prayerbook containing a set liturgy used by all Christians; however many Christian denominations have their own local prayerbooks, for example:

Vocal

Vocal prayer is prayer made with the lips, though not always out loud. Practices of vocal prayer vary across denominations, but may include:

  • Renouncing distraction, often by closing the eyes
  • Presenting oneself by bowing the head, placing hands together or lifting them upward, or making the sign of the cross
  • Making a request and/or give praise for grace, enlightenment, assistance or just praising and thanking God
  • Invoking the name, glory, or life of Jesus
  • Closing, often with "Amen"

The prayer is supposed to receive the full mental and spiritual effort of those involved; even if a standard wording is used, mechanical recitation is discouraged.

Vocal prayer may be prayer of petition: in this view, a person beseeches God for a need to be fulfilled. Vocal prayer may also involve prayer of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, intercession, and communion. Particularly common vocal prayers include the Lord's Prayer; the Psalms; the Jesus Prayer; the Hail Mary; the Canticles throughout the Old and New Testaments; Grace, a prayer of thanksgiving usually before, sometimes after, a meal; and prayers associated with the rosary and the prayer rope. See List of prayers.

Meditative

This has a more interior character than vocal prayer. In some Christian theology, this type of prayer is intended to help obtain some knowledge and love of God:according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking."[4]

Christian meditation may commence by reading from a holy book of some kind, followed by silent prayer. Some Christians meditate on the condition of Man, or on the life of Jesus.[citation needed] According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary."[citation needed]

Contemplative prayer

In what is called contemplative prayer, it is believed that the soul enters into contemplation. Mystics have claimed that in this form of prayer, God conducts the soul.[citation needed] Methods of Contemplative Prayer include the Centering Prayer and Lectio divina

Physical posture

Certain physical gestures often accompany prayer, including medieval gestures such as genuflection or making the sign of the cross. Kneeling, bowing and prostrations (see also poklon) are often practiced in more traditional branches of Christianity. Frequently in Western Christianity the hands are placed palms together and forward as in the feudal commendation ceremony. At other times the older orans posture may be used, with palms up and elbows in.

Charismatic prayer: Speaking in tongues

The technical term for speaking in tongues is “glossolalia,” made up of two Greek words, glossa (language or tongue) and lalein (to talk).

The word glossa appears in the Greek New Testament not less than fifty times. It is used to refer to the physical organ of the tongue as in James 3:5; once in reference to flames of fire shaped like tongues[5]; at least once in a metaphorical sense when referring to speech as in the statement, “my tongue (speech) was glad (joyous)”.[6]

The only mention of speaking in tongues in the canonical Gospels is in the Gospel of Mark - “And these signs will follow those who believe; In my name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues”.[7] However this chapter, Mark 16, is widely considered a later addition to the original text.

Skeptics assert that speaking in tongues is "the ecstatic utterance of emotionally agitated religious persons" [8], and that the phenomenon is unpremeditated and out of their control. However, many contemporary charismatic and Pentecostal Christians disagree, stating that they are in full control of all their faculties when they speak in tongues, [9] and that the experience is a life enhancing one. [10]

In the early Christian community, glossolalia was apparently quite widespread. This is evident from the apostle Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, where he refers to speaking "with the tongues of men and of angels".[11] This is commonly assumed to be a reference to glossolalia, implying a belief that 'speaking in tongues' involves genuine language, either human or heavenly in origin. Paul's lengthy discourse in this letter,[12] warning the faithful not to be unbalanced and disproportionate in their use of the phenomenon, implies that it was widely used at least in Corinth.

Evidence for the belief that glossolalia can be a human language may be found in the account of the Day of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles. Here we read that a large gathering of Christ's disciples "were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them" (New International Version). According to this account, "when they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language". Some claimed that the disciples had drunk too much wine, but Peter rejected this, pointing out that it was only nine in the morning.[13]

A Christian philosophy of prayer

Some Christians see prayer as a means of achieving union with God, a means of raising the mind as well as the heart to God. Thérèse de Lisieux described prayer as "an uplifting of the heart, a glance toward heaven, a cry of gratitude and of love in times of sorrow as well as of joy" (Story of a Soul). Prayer can therefore take place as part of an organised event such as the Breviary or the Mass, but can also be spontaneous and may offer different meanings depending on the mood of the person praying.

Many Christians believe they can grow spiritually through the life of prayer. One view sees three phases of growth: beginners start on the "purgative way", later comes the "illuminative way" with "affective prayer", and eventually one may experience the "unitive way". In the Roman Catholic Church, writers who have influenced ideas about prayer include St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and Thomas à Kempis, author of The Imitation of Christ.

Scientific study

The results of scientific studies on the subject of prayer are varied. Some studies claim to show that prayer has positive effects [14] [15] whereas others claim it does not, and can even have negative effects.[16]

The Office of Prayer Research, sponsored by the Association of Unity Churches, has collected some 400 scientific studies on the subject of prayer and healing, and say that about 75 percent show prayer having a positive impact on health. [17]

One highly-publicized three-year controlled double-blind study of intercessory prayer for patients recovering from coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery came to the conclusion that Christian intercessory prayer had no effect on the frequency or severity of complications in those patients who were prayed for. [18]

Critics of such studies argue that science cannot illuminate questions of faith, and that the studies themselves may influence patients negatively. [19]

For additional discussion on the subject see efficacy of prayer.

See also

References and footnotes

  1. ^ Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski (2005). Prayer: A History. Houghton Mifflin Books. ISBN 0618152881.
  2. ^ Madeleine Gray, The Protestant Reformation, (Sussex Academic Press, 2003), page 140.
  3. ^ Question 201 of Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation (Concordia Publishing House, 1991 edition) answers the question "For whom should we pray?" as follows: "We should pray for ourselves and for all other people, even for our enemies, but not for the souls of the dead."
  4. ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church #2705; http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p4s1c3a1.htm
  5. ^ Acts 2:3
  6. ^ Acts 2:26
  7. ^ Mark 16:17
  8. ^ The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible defines glossolalia as: "the ecstatic utterance of emotionally agitated religious persons, consisting of a jumble of disjointed and largely unintelligible sounds. Those who speak in this way believe that they are moved directly by a divine spirit and their utterance is therefore quite spontaneous and unpremeditated."
  9. ^ Charisma and Community By Mary Jo Neitz, page 40, paragraph 2: http://books.google.com/books?id=KrUr2ydLiwAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA40,M1
  10. ^ ABC News report: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=2935819&page=1
  11. ^ 1 Cor 13:1
  12. ^ chapter 14, verses 1 to 25
  13. ^ Acts 2
  14. ^ Leonard Leibovici, "Effects of remote, retroactive intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients with bloodstream infection: randomised controlled trial", British Medical Journal, Volume 323, 22-29 December 2001. [1] Article in the British Medical Journal, Dec 2001
  15. ^ [2] Article from the Southern Medical Journal, San Francisco
  16. ^ Oliver Burkeman, "If you want to get better - don't say a little prayer", The Guardian, 1 April 2006. [3]
  17. ^ Gregory M. Lamb, "Study highlights difficulty of isolating effect of prayer on patients", The Christian Science Monitor, 3 April 2006. [4]
  18. ^ Benson et al., "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer", American Heart Journal, Volume 151, Issue 4, April 2006, Pages 934-942. [5] Article on the Science Direct website
  19. ^ Richard Sloan, professor of behavioural medicine at Columbia University, stated of one study that 'it represents bad science, poor medical care, and it trivialises religion". Oliver Burkeman, "If you want to get better - don't say a little prayer", The Guardian, 1 April 2006. [6]
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