In Prayer We Present Our Thoughts to God

If you were in church this morning, you heard Rev. Gloria share a short but moving passage from Dutch priest, professor, and author Henri Nouwen. This piece, on the nature of prayer, is a beautiful reminder of how our communication with God is a constant conversation. For those who missed it, the excerpt is posted below.

To pray, I think, does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things, nor does it mean spending time with God instead of spending time with other people. As soon as we begin to divide our thoughts into thoughts about God and thoughts about other things, like people and events, we separate God from our daily life. At that point God is allocated to a pious little niche in some corner of our lives where we only think pious thoughts and experience pious feelings. Although it is important and even indispensable for our spiritual lives to set apart time for God and God alone, our prayer can only become unceasing [prayer] when all our thoughts - beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful or joyful - can be thought in the presence of the One who dwells in us and surrounds us. By trying to do this, our unceasing thinking is converted into unceasing prayer, moving us from a self-centered monologue to a God-centered dialogue. To do this we want to try to convert our thoughts into conversation. The main question, therefore, is not so much what we think, but to whom we present our thoughts.

-Henri Nouwen

To read more of Henri Nouwen’s musings on prayer, read his article ‘Unceasing Prayer’ from America magazine or visit the Henri Nouwen Society website.