On Praying Some Prayers

The past weeks have been conducive to prayer. Earth trembles, cities crumble, people lie fearful in rain without shelter. Men face firing squads, women slavery; thousands drown fleeing wars and tyrannies. What prayers to pray?

            Do I have the right to pray for my own health and agency? Every day I thank God for treatments and think one little miracle wouldn’t hurt. I lie in comfort in a brilliant hospital, smiling angelic-faced attendants drip-feeding miraculous medicines. While others lie in rain or drown in cold sea. What prayers to pray?

            All over the world, governments get it wrong, and imbuing the hearts of ministers with righteousness is slower than the drip in my hand. Prisoners die by noose, gun and knife, and a variety of inventions devised by inventive souls. The Lady Jane Grey, a fervent Evangelical, asked her executioners: ‘May I say this Psalm?’ and began Miserere Mihi, aged 16.

            You can pray for all prisoners and captives, and sometimes this is heard: nearly 300 women and girls freed from captivity by military action. I can send money to Oxfam, and hope for blankets, water, shelter, to be given. Brushing past my conscience, still praying for myself. What prayers to pray?

            Or you can pray, with the Buddhists, for the welfare of all sentient beings. The West has been taught to say this, thank God, but much enlightenment must come to pass.

            The Lord, says the Psalm, is plenteous in mercy. What prayers to pray?

On Cleaning the House

This week I decided to clean my house thoroughly, helped by bright sunshine. This is actually a privilege, as long as you don’t do it too often.

            Benefits of cleaning house: you’re in your own space, moving things around, placing them just where you want them. You decide what’s clean and what’s dirty. You come across valued objects from happy times, and things that make you wonder where you were when. You take notice of oils, chemicals and possible poisons you’ve overlooked in your environs. If, like me, you’ve been too sick to clean up, there’s the simple pleasure of agency, being able to do it.

            A mental or spiritual cleaning has the same benefits. Moving outworn ideas into back cupboards; accepting events or persons you thought were unwholesome; becoming aware of poisonous emotions like greed, revenge, egotism and hostility. Binning what you can.

            Have you outgrown some old prayers that can retire behind new ones? Maybe you now think passing the exam has more to do with your devotion to study, while winning the lottery is in the hands of chance. Is living the Gospel a possible prayer?

            Having the strength to clean house can be pure pleasure. Looking at the clean house, dwelling in it, even though you know you’re going to have to do it all again.

On Burning Churches

The poet W.H. Auden regained his Christian faith after reflecting on the burning of churches during the Spanish Civil War. He’d gone to the war an idealistic Marxist-materialist-atheist, but the burning of churches disturbed him. In trying to discover reasons for his distress, he returned to his Christian belief.

            Atheism presents itself as a wise reasonable alternative to the fires of faith. This is neither new nor reasonable. Revolutionary France turned Notre Dame Cathedral into a Temple of Reason. It doesn’t last. Icons and churches once burned in Orthodox Russia.

            Treasures of art and music may burn with the church. Churches hold the reverence of our ancestors, so burning churches may symbolise obliteration of ancient civilisations.          

            Churches burn for many reasons: if someone lights the hedge on fire and it spreads to the church, is it accidental? Deliberately firing a building is arson, a crime. In 1936, Gaudi’s plans and models for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona burned when the church was set on fire by revolutionaries: the models are being reconstructed as work on this mighty basilica continues.

            When churches burn, the faith of the congregation continues to flow like fire. A church stands a holy island amid the waves of worldly space. When any church burns, the most important question will be: who has the photographs, drawings, and plans?