Is one form of prayer better than another?
One may argue that some forms of prayer are better than others. The question is analogous to asking what gift of the Spirit is best? John Howe, the Episcopal Bishop of Central Florida, once spoke to the question of what gift of the Spirit was most important. He said that that spiritual gift is most important that is most needed at the time. The gifts of the Spirit are given for the good of the Body of Christ, the Church. If some members of that Body need a particular gift for their collective growth in the Lord, then that gift is most important for that group at that time. Similarly, we can say that that that form of prayer is best which helps us to be most in harmony with God’s will in our regard, and this may vary from time to time and situation to situation.
When we direct our thoughts and actions to God, we engage in prayer. Our prayer may be intended to help someone else, such as when we pray that an ill friend will be healed. Because prayer intended to aid another is less “selfish” than prayer for a personal favor, we might say that the former is better than the latter. Or we might suggest that prayer that praising God is better than that prayer that asks God to do something.
However, we must remember that our goal as Christians is to come to the knowledge of God, to come to know God as God knows us. Moreover, only with God’s help can we achieve this goal. God will indeed bring us to this goal if we allow God to do so. That prayer is of greatest benefit to us then that most opens us most completely to God’s transforming power. The more that our will conforms to the will of God, the more open to God we are; and the more we yield our own desires to God’s desires, the more we give control to God rather than striving to keep control for ourselves. That prayer is best that is most in tune with God’s will for us at any given moment. In sum, when we pray in a manner that is most in keeping with the way God wants us to pray, we pray “with God” rather than just to God.
That prayer is best at any given time that is best fitted to God’s will for us at that time. But we might well desire most that form of prayer that is closest to our ultimate objective as Christians, that is, prayer that brings us to the direct knowledge or experience of God, that is, prayer that is a foretaste of heaven. This is the prayer of infused or passive contemplation – the direct experience of God that comes as a gift from God -- that we will talk more about later. So long as we keep in mind that passive contemplation may not be that form of prayer that we most need, in other words, that prayer through which we are able to be most open to God’s transforming grace, there is no problem in wanting it. And if we want it, we may well seek forms of prayer that may better prepare us to receive it should God grant us this gift.
I frankly believe that the best preparation for passive contemplation is to abandon oneself to God, to seek at all times to choose as we believe God would have us choose, to offer all we have and are to God in love. But there are exercises that have the weight of tradition behind them that many have used to try to open themselves more fully to God and to prepare themselves for passive contemplation should it come. Most of these exercises involve “active contemplation.”
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