When God Talks Back - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Tue, 04 Jun 2013 04:54:37 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg When God Talks Back - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 You want ME to pray for you? 5 weeks and counting.... https://cathnews.co.nz/2013/06/07/you-want-me-to-pray-for-you-5-weeks-and-counting/ Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:10:15 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=45084

The trouble with the godstuff is that you can spend an awful lot of time wrestling with things that make no apparent sense. Like this prayer exploration I've been tangling with after my friend Marcia asked me to pray for her before merrily tripping off on pilgrimage. Prayer has always been a mystery to me, which you Read more

You want ME to pray for you? 5 weeks and counting….... Read more]]> The trouble with the godstuff is that you can spend an awful lot of time wrestling with things that make no apparent sense.

Like this prayer exploration I've been tangling with after my friend Marcia asked me to pray for her before merrily tripping off on pilgrimage.
Prayer has always been a mystery to me, which you might consider progress if I'm on about being still or finding, as Thomas Merton might put it, my deepest center. However, whilst I admit to being able to hear the still, small voice inside, I remain resolute that you can't just go about calling that God.
Unlike the Vineyard Church folks described in Tanya Lurhmann's book, When God talks back. They say that God wants to be your friend (pleeeease!) and 'you develop that relationship through prayer …. and when you develop that relationship, God will answer back, through thoughts and mental images he places in your mind, and through sensations he causes in your body.' (p41)
To be honest, I think that's a convenient fiction, a kind of linguistic justification for feeling good about the choices you've made. It also assumes God exists in some active way and is delighted to interact with us as though we were best buddies.
Whilst I grew up on images of that kind of God and curse Michelangelo for perpetuating them on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, I gave up belief in a God like that long ago, which may be the sticking point.
According to psychotherapist Ana-Maria Rizzuto, our internal representation of God is complex, drawing on our relationships and powerful experiences. Once formed, 'it has all the psychic potential of a living person, even if it is experienced only in the privacy of the mind.' (When God talks back p124) Continue reading
Source

Sande Ramage is an Anglican priest and blogger.

You want ME to pray for you? 5 weeks and counting….]]> 45084 You want ME to pray for you? Day 19 https://cathnews.co.nz/2013/05/17/you-want-me-to-pray-for-you-day-19/ Thu, 16 May 2013 19:10:55 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=44228

Not one prayer Marcia. Even though you asked me to pray for your pilgrimage to Santiago, not one dialogue with God has unfolded. No petitions have been sent heavenward asking for your safekeeping. Not even any candles lit on your behalf. My lack of proper praying hasn't given rise to any guilt at all; just an engaged interest Read more

You want ME to pray for you? Day 19... Read more]]> Not one prayer Marcia. Even though you asked me to pray for your pilgrimage to Santiago, not one dialogue with God has unfolded.

No petitions have been sent heavenward asking for your safekeeping. Not even any candles lit on your behalf.

My lack of proper praying hasn't given rise to any guilt at all; just an engaged interest in my lack of interest in wanting to pray in the colloquially accepted sense, if that makes any sense. I just can't see the point of it now, if I ever could.
'But what does Marcia mean by pray?' asked my best mate. My ranting on about people using the word God indiscriminately, as though we all have some kind of shared understanding when we use it, has influenced him.
'Not sure,' I replied, my head in Tanya Luhrmann's book When God talks back . 'I didn't ask,' which when you think about it was an early mistake.
'Soren Kierkegaard the philosopher,' I added helpfully, hoping to make good my lack of enquiry, 'reckoned that "the function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."' My friend looked doubtful.
The Vineyard Church people in Tanya's book hope to be changed or better still, transformed by their prayer. They say that prayer, when done by a properly trained person (this will probably eliminate me) can be imagined as a vehicle to draw the supernatural presence of the Holy Spirit to the person in need. (p12)
It was the imagination bit that enchanted me for according to Tanya's anthropological observations, the singing itself brings the Spirit into presence, 'the way Aslan sang the beasts of the new Narnia into life.' Continue reading
Sources

Sande Ramage is an Anglican priest and blogger.

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