George Herbert, in his celebrated 17th-century poem "Prayer," likens his subject to everything under the sun – God's breath, the Milky Way, the bird of paradise, heaven's manna, the land of spices, softness and peace, love and bliss – before concluding, out of breath, that it is "something understood."
Not much has changed in four centuries – if prayer is "something understood" it is also a search for understanding. When we pray, we look to understand and align ourselves with God's will, we ask God to understand and support us, we seek understanding among neighbors and nations, and we hope in some measure to understand ourselves.
Herbert got it right, too, about prayer pervading everything. It is the glue that binds the cosmos together. Society, science, art: Look deeply enough and you will see that their origins lie in the human search for meaning, a search that begins in prayer and returns, with life's last breath, to prayer.
Prayer comes in an amazing variety of forms. There is adoration, petition, thanksgiving, contemplation, ecstasy, and more. As a couple, we pray with our family, using traditional formulas of praise and petition at meals and before sleep. We also pray with our community every Sunday in church. When Philip isn't too groggy from lack of sleep, he likes to meditate for 15 minutes each morning before work. Carol likes to pray the rosary.
Though we've written a book on the subject, prayer remains for us an inexhaustible mystery and a rollicking adventure, promising and eluding understanding.
Carol and Philip Zaleski are co-authors of ‘Prayer: A History’ (2005)
