Clothesline - Edition 221

By Rev. Elizabeth L. Nelson, Pastor

October 16, 2024  

What a difference a week makes!! At this time last week we were awaiting Hurricane Milton, hunkering down, hoping we had enough supplies, gas for the generator, and stamina to deal with whatever would happen.

When the storm passed, we had no property damage, but we were without power for three days. No problem, right? I wish! I’ve thought a lot about my reaction to everything, and it wasn’t pretty. I’m very spoiled…but aren’t we all? Thinking about what was, and having returned to normal, I spotted a book on the shelf from seminary. It was a daily devotional with words from the ancient fathers of the church. I’ve always found strength and peace reading what the patriarchs wrote. They certainly lived a much harder life than three-days without electricity!

I opened the book to Proper 23, Tuesday. The corner was folded in—dog-eared, we call it. It must have been important if I did that. And it was! Written by St. Augustine, it was all about prayer. “Always pray at appointed hours,” he said, “the desire grows lukewarm from [the world] and without attention to prayer, the desire will go from lukewarm to a chill, and may be totally extinguished unless it is repeatedly stirred into flame.” Wow… choose to pray, I thought.

It reminded me of something Bishop John Howe had said to me many years ago: Marriage isn’t a feeling; it’s a choice. Having my routine disrupted—even my prayer routine—set my feelings into a place where I was almost unable to function. I should have made the choice to deal with what I had as best I could. Thankfully, I have a husband who bent over backwards to keep me comfortable and sane. But I still wondered: why do feelings take over so easily when choices might be the better solution?

St. Augustine said that praying for long periods of time is good, as long as it “does not keep us from performing the other good and necessary actions we are obliged to do.” He spoke of monks in Egypt who “offer frequent prayers, but these are very short and hurled like swift javelins.” He pretty much says that short prayer, excessive prayer, wordy prayers, meditation—all of it—is “to knock with a persistent and holy fervor at the door of the one whom we beseech.”

When times are good, when times are bad…choose to pray. When we choose to pray, God will always hear, and the feeling of closeness that we so richly desire, will happen. St. Augustine says: “[Prayer] is generally accomplished more through sighs than words, more through weeping, than speech.” It’s not magic; it takes persistence. Prayer opens the door to a relationship with God…and that’s what we desperately need!

Ref: Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church, by J. Robert Wright.