Here we are, suddenly pitched into another lockdown.  Our services in church have to stop once again for a month, although this time the church is allowed to remain open for private prayer (times are published on the front page of St Mary’s Church website).  Those who find comfort from being in a sacred space will have the opportunity to sit peacefully in a pew and entrust the present situation to God’s infinite care.

There are so many people who are caught up in this time of extraordinary hardship and uncertainty, both financial and emotional: those who haven’t been able to see loved ones for months, or who have had to live on their own with very little face-to-face human contact, those who have lost their jobs, and those who cannot find employment after making countless job applications.  So where do we begin in our prayers? 

When we don’t know what to pray, we can follow the advice offered by St Paul:

“the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Romans Chapter 8: verse 26). 

I find this verse really helpful because it acknowledges our human limitations – an understanding that we can’t find all the solutions, no matter how many experts we consult or how much research is carried out.  But it also highlights the deep compassion of God, who is there with us in our darkest moments, sighing too deeply for words and knowing what we need when we don’t even know for ourselves.

There is of course no right or wrong way of praying.  All prayers are equally valuable to God, and they reflect our particular concerns and joys of the moment.  However, it’s probably all too easy to fall into the habit of presenting our requests to God, almost as a shopping list of beneficial things which we would like to see happen in the world, and that list may be entirely unselfish.  But perhaps we might learn to listen more in our prayers so that God can give us guidance in the space, rather than us doing all the talking!  A few years ago I started to keep a notebook of interesting quotations to ponder over.  One entry springs to mind:  “Help me, O God, in my prayers not to ask for what I think I want, but what you know I need”.

In the Christian calendar we have just commemorated All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day where we remember the Christian witnesses who have died down the centuries, and those we have loved and lost.  These are timely reminders that generations of Christians before us have had to cope with trials and tribulations in a private capacity or on a world stage.  They discovered much of their resilience through their prayers.  This fellowship of believers may give us the strength to keep going through the current pandemic, and as we pray in Morning Prayer each day:

“In the darkness of this age that is passing away, may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy, surround our steps as we journey on”.

Sarah Bourne, Chaplain for the Arts – 4^th November 2020                sarahbourne@banburystmary.org.uk