Prayer

...walls are not the critical factor in praying or not praying.  What is critical is an imagination large enough to contain all of life, all worship and work as prayer, set in a structure (askesis) adequate to the actual conditions in which it is lived out...

If we do not understand the pastoral life vocationally as a life of prayer, then askesis will only be a cubbyhole for devotional narcissism.   To put it differently, if we understand the life of prayer as anything less than the comprehensive interior of the pastoral vocation, then any askesis we construct will be no more than a stage prop for a religious performance.

The reason this passage strikes me is two fold.  First, because a few years ago I realised (I mean really realised, not just thought I realised) that without consistency in prayer things were going to be hollow in church life.  And secondly, because I think I began to foolishly treat this first realisation as enough;  but now I have experienced being brought totally to the end of oneself, to truly realise one has no inherent resources for the situation.  And this means there is only prayer:  as the confession of one's utter dependence on God, and with it, the lack of sufficiency about everything in oneself.   

The question is:   can we truly hold onto this?  Can we hold on to it having confidence that it is enough for all things so we need not crumble?  Can we hold onto it, and not start to reassert ourselves in the wrong way....?