Richard Rohr has recently put this practice into focus and offers this viewpoint:
Practice: Praying Always
Prayer is not a transaction that somehow pleases God but a transformation of the consciousness of the one doing the praying. Prayer is the awakening of an inner dialogue that, from God’s side, has never ceased. This is why Paul could write of praying “always” (see 1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer is not changing God’s mind about us or about anything else, but allowing God to change our mind about the reality right in front of us (which we usually avoid or distort).
When we put on a different mind, heaven takes care of itself. In fact, it begins now. If we resort too exclusively to verbal, wordy prayers, we’ll remain stuck in our rational, dualistic minds and will not experience deep change at the level of consciousness. Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise.
Jesus tells his disciples, “Be awake. Be alert. You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cock crow, or in the morning” (Mark 13:33-35). Jesus is not threatening, “You’d better do it right, or I’m going to get you.” He’s talking about the forever, eternal coming of Christ now . . . and now . . . and now. God’s judgment is always redemption. Christ is always coming. God is always present. It’s we who fall asleep.
Be ready. Be present to God in the here and now, the ordinary, the interruptions. Being fully present to the soul of all things will allow you to say, “This is good. This is enough. In fact, this is all I need.” You are now situated in the One Loving Gaze that unites all things in universal attraction and appreciation. We are practicing for heaven. Why wait for heaven when you can enjoy the Divine Flow in every moment, in everyone?
oOo
Good article about personal prayers. I would like to have read about prayers for others. How would he describe this.
G’day Al. I would read into this thinking of Richard Rohr is that he is describing prayer in all forms as a matter of raising consciousness, concern, and response. In the case of others needs prayer, especially when it is collective and shared does what Paul called Jesus followers to do – What you say with words you should then act out responsibly. However, that is my opinion and I will do a bit of back trawling on Rohr to see if he has further thoughts on this. Good to hear from you. Paul
Hello again Al. Have a look at this. It contains the gist of a contemporary approach to prayer – https://cac.org/contemplation-dm/
Paul