Prayer -- The First Ministry of Dependence.

Without doubt, St. Augustine's Confessions is one of the greatest books written in the entire literary history of the West. This prayer for his departed parents (especially his mother), which comes at the end of Book 9, drips with spiritual pathos, even as it confesses faith. It is a good prayer to reflect upon for the first post of the mini-series (see below) on prayer that I shall offer.

Thus now, O my Praise and my Life, O God of my heart, forgetting for a little her good deeds for which I give joyful thanks to thee, I now beseech thee for the sins of my mother. Hearken unto me, through that Medicine of our wounds, who didst hang upon the tree and who sittest at thy right hand "making intercession for us.". . I beseech thee also to forgive her debts, whatever she contracted during so many years since the water of salvation. Forgive her, O Lord, forgive her, I beseech thee. . .

Indeed, I believe thou hast already done what I ask of thee, but "accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord." [She] only desired to have her name remembered at thy altar, where she had served without the omission of a single day, and where she knew that the holy sacrifice was dispensed by which that handwriting that was against us is blotted out.

Who will repay him the price with which he bought us, so as to take us from him? Thus to the sacrament of our redemption did thy hand maid bind her soul by the bond of faith. Let none separate her from thy protection. . . .

Therefore, let her rest in peace with her husband. . . And inspire, O my Lord my God, inspire thy servants, my brothers; thy sons, my masters, who with voice and heart and writings I serve, that as many of them as shall read these confessions may also at thy altar remember Monica, thy handmaid, together with Patricius. . . .

The following line represents the mystery of prayer, for so many of us:

"Indeed, I believe thou hast already done what I ask of thee, but "accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord."

So, why do we pray? It seems to me that the first reason (although there are more) that we make petitionary prayer is because we are completely dependent upon God. This is true whether we know it or not.

However, Christians know the God upon whom we depend is clearly personal, rather than merely some force that undergirds reality. In the Triune Godhead immanently we have Three Persons in eternal communion. The Son is eternally begotten-- the Word of God (John 1); and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (hat tip to the East). The theology of orthodoxy is clear that the Three-One God is a communion of persons.

We would not be far afield if we were to say that the Trinity is the eternal source of personal communication; although in so speaking we must not think that we speak univocally about Triune communication and our paltry speaking of thoughts to and with one another. But, our capacity to formulate thought and express ourselves in reason and love is surely a reflection of our bearing God's Image. So, speaking to express and share our very selves is one of the ways we are, by an unspeakable grace, most like God in our creatureliness.

When we address God in petitionary prayer, therefore, we are acknowledging two vitally important realities. The first already allude to: our utter dependence upon God who made us in the Divine Image. To ask God for things or for God to do things is to identify for ourselves the source of our lives and the hope of the welfare of ourselves and our family and friends. But, this reminding is only complete when we "speak" it. (Even if we "think" it we are "speaking" it, whether oral utterances are produced or not.) This act of speaking out petitions is completing, because our dependence is upon the Tri-Personal God.

But this brings us to a second consideration. Speaking in petition to God in Christ is personal communication. Rooted as it is in the Triune Life, speaking petitionary prayer involves acknowledging our dependence upon God who is Personal Reality. Petitionary prayer, therefore, is an act that is rooted in the belief that God oversees and interacts with the world. And it considers expressing our needs and wishes to God a vital part of what it means to be in the care of this kind of God. Where as many philosophies and religious outlooks allow for conceptualizing -- as the Stoics of old would have -- about one's lot in life, petitionary prayer affirms that Trinitarian Providence is first and foremost personal involvement. The Incarnation is both the most sublime sign of this and the most powerful means.

Hence, because Trinitarian Providence is Personal, it is also contingent but not arbitrary. It is rooted completely in God's good purposes for Creation and for us as children of the Father in Christ who live by the presence and power of the Spirit. Nothing imposes itself upon us in God's providence as a necessity. Christian theology has even contended (Leibinitz's view of sufficient reason not withstanding) God's goodness to be free, even if it comes from God's own nature and unchanging character.

So, nothing is fate. In other words, no concept of Kharma can be reconciled with petitionary Trinitarian-personal prayer, for nothing is determined for us by the circumstances of our lives. (Consider even the prayers of Ninevah, who turned to God in repentance and were spared from the prophecy.) As the Psalmist says, "our help is in the Lord." And as St. Paul says in Colossians, "All things hold together in Christ" [alone, we could add].

Petitionary prayer, therefore, is first of all a ministry of the children of God in the life of the Church to one another. The very act of doing it declares to us and reminds us of our dependence upon the Triune personal source of our lives,. We are reminded, thereby, that our lives are in His hands not controlled by laws or circumstances. And when we pray we are reminding ourselves that our dependence is upon the Triune One who listens when we pray, because we bear the image of a God who commune-icates in His own Triune life.