Monday, February 13, 2006

Donne on Prayer

It isn’t my intention for this to become the John Donne blog. Nonetheless, I like Donne, and I thought this was an interesting statement by him. It’s a different take on prayer than what the majority of American Christendom would hold, and is worthy of some thought. This is taken from a sermon entitled On Prayer, Repentance, and the Mercy of God; a Lenten Sermon:

It must be my own prayer, and no prayer is so truly, or so properly mine, as that that the Church has delivered and recommended to me. In sudden and unpremeditated prayer, I am not always I; and when I am not myself, my prayer is not my prayer. Passions and affections sometimes, sometimes bodily infirmities, and sometimes a vain desire of being eloquent in prayer, alienates me, withdraws me from myself, and then that prayer is not my prayer.

Any thoughts?

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