The Case of the Missing Prayer

The Case of the Missing Prayer

There are many pathways to God. As in Thomas Merton’s spiritual classic; the “Seven Storey Mountain”, we wander the vast circumference of our life’s Pilgrimage, until, at last, we come to the Summit. But, is there something missing in our modern spirituality? I love a good mystery, so let me set the stage for the Case of the Missing Prayer!

Toronto was growing like topsy in the 1950’s. When my mom remarried, off we went to Canada. My stepfather had just become the Chief Engineer of the Weston Biscuit Company, Canada’s version of Nabisco. 

The Diocese of Toronto placed a small portable on a plot of ground in our neighborhood, and assigned a young priest to the cure. He canvased the development in which we lived. He dropped by our house and invited us to church. I began to  attend services. 

In the fall of 1960, it came time for me to attend Confirmation classes. Fr Hall was fresh out of seminary, and Honest to God his classes seemed to me like post graduate study. They were rigorous and demanding, with memory work, written essays, and exams.

He used the Socratic method in teaching. One day he asked us what we knew of the seven principal kinds of Christian Prayer. He waited for us to respond. Class?

We ventured to answer; 

Praise

Intercession

Thanksgiving

Penitence (asking for forgiveness)

Those were the obvious ones. What’s missing? I remember squirming, telling myself I should know this stuff, I prayed often. But then I asked myself, was my prayer complete?

“Go on”; he said.

Alas we were stuck.

With a twinkling eye he tapped his foot waiting.

Finally he said; “What about Adoration?”

We replied, “what’s the difference between that and Praise?”

“Aha!” Said he, “what does the Catechism say?”

We were supposed to read the Catechism the night before, but  perhaps we were not so diligent about doing so.

“Adoration” he said, reading from the Prayer Book, “is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God asking nothing more but to enjoy God’s presence.”

Interesting! That made perfect sense to me. Just being in church in the presence of the holy, listening to the Silence and the beauty of an organ prelude, or as a child lying down on my back and watching the passing clouds with a friend assigning faces to the wind swept shapes, “perhaps that’s Lincoln”. Yes, many’s the time I asked nothing more but to be in the presence of God. 

Question; “What the difference between that and Praise?”

Fr Hall referenced the Catechism again; “we Praise God not to ask for anything but because God’s Being draws Praise from us.”

That made sense too. Praise seems more active than Adoration. We often use the word “Praise” in Church as an act of devotion, most notably at the presentation of the Gifts of the People of God at the Offertory. 

“Go on, Fr Hall, what else did we miss?” 

We provided a blank silence.

“Petition,” he said. “You got Intercession, that’s a prayer for someone else. Petition is a prayer to God for yourself.”

That made sense too!

“So, to review,” the kindly priest said, “we have six kinds of prayer so far; Adoration, Praise, Thanksgiving, Petition, Intercession, and Penitence”

“What’s the missing Prayer?” 

For the life of me, I could not think of it. Neither could my classmates. 

“Think!” Fr Hall pressed firmly upon our hearts and minds. 

Nothing! We were baffled. 

Finally I said with a chuckle; “What pray tell, is the missing prayer?” 

“Not so fast,” the young priest said. “Think of Jesus. What was his prayer to God?”

It took a while, but finally he got it out of us. 

The hint had to do with the prayer on the night before he died for us.

Remember, at Gethsemani Jesus prayed; “Let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” ~Matthew 26:39.   

The mysterious word Oblation entered my vocabulary that day. The Catechism teaches; “Oblation is an offering of ourselves, our lives and labors, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God.” 

Interesting. 

In other words, this is a prayer that reverses the order of subject and predicate. In the intimacy of the I-Thou relationship between us, the Prayer of Oblation turns now to to God who looks to us for the answer.

Now we say not what we want of God, but wonder what God wants of us? This is a prayer critical to the development of a mature spiritually.

Or to put that in a way that I finally came to understand, in my own words; “Jesus, you can count on me to do whatever it takes, whatever it is you need me to do for you and for your people.” 

Comes now the Gospel reply;

“Feed my sheep.

Serve my poor.

Visit the sick and those in prison.

Give the outcast a safe place to call home.

Be my Body in and for the sake of the world.

Go, love the world as much as I do and change it and make it look like me.

Do not be afraid, little flock.

I give my life for you. Go, give your lives for others.”

Aha! The Case of the Missing Prayer! 

Answer: Oblation!

It is akin to the stirring declaration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in his inaugural address; “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” 

The Prayer of Oblation declares likewise; “Ask not what God can do for you, ask what you can do for God.”

The tendency of a Consumer Society is to set before God the things we need and want, forgetting what God requires of us; namely, “to do justice,  to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God”. ~Micah 6:8

Hence the “Missing Prayer”: Oblation. 

Today’s lessons include Solomon’s prayer of Petition to God for the Gift of Wisdom. The Psalmist is full of Thanksgiving as the Psalmist often is. Paul reminds us to Praise God in melody and song. And in the continuing theme of these past few weeks, Jesus is Bread of Heaven, making an offering of himself in union with God for the purposes of God. 

I needn’t remind you of what you do here at Trinity for ACAT, Dinah’s House, The Lower Merrimack Collaborative, the Worship of God and the Service of God’s people. You are an Oblation indeed to God and God’s people. 

And so, class, as Fr Hall would say;  let’s review the Seven Principal Kinds of Prayer 

Adoration

Praise

Thanksgiving

Petition

Intercession

Penitence

And the missing prayer missing no more;

Oblation. 

Mystery solved!

Here we are. Trinity Church in a period of Transition. Praying God send us someone who will join us in this Pilgrimage and offer himself/herself along with each and every one of you as an Oblation, an offering of ourselves, our lives and labors, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul