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 Cloud of WitnessesPastoral prayer is a scalpel, not a massage.
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Von Balthasar discusses primarily contemplative prayer, since it is the meat-in-the-nut of all prayer. Dialogic participation in the inner nature of God is the foundation of every form of prayer, personal and corporate. It is what Jesus means when he bids us pray, "Our Father." It is what Paul means when he informs us that "because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father'" (Gal. 4:6, NRSV). "For we have been permitted to glimpse his inner nature," von Balthasar writes, "to enter into it, into the inner core of eternal truth; bathed in this light which radiates upon us from God, we ourselves become light and transparent before him." Von Balthasar tells us over and over that prayer begins with, is filled with, and ends with the Word of God: "Man was created to be a hearer of the Word, and it is in responding to the Word that he attains his true dignity. His innermost constitution has been designed for dialogue." Christian prayer is always Trinitarian: "[T]he Christian has an absolute duty to cultivate Trinitarian contemplation." Throughout the book von Balthasar offers sharp critiques of Eastern and non-Trinitarian forms of contemplation, the best I've read. Von Balthasar understands our dry times compassionately. In comparing himself and us to the Samaritan woman, he confesses, "I am this dried-up soul, running after the earthly water every day because it has lost its grasp of the heavenly water it is really seeking. Like her I give the same obtuse, groping response to the offer of the eternal wellspring; in the end, like her, I have to be pierced by the Word as it wrings from me the confession of sin." Worship curriculumIronically, von Balthasar has affected most my pastoral prayers. The pastoral prayer in Sunday morning worship has always been difficult for me. My nature suits me to praying alone. But the kind of personal contemplation von Balthasar teaches-Word-centered, Trinitarian dialogue from the center of the whole person, body and soul-is well suited to public prayer. After reading Prayer I began praying through Scripture in my pastoral prayers in a fashion similar to that in my personal devotions. People tell me they look forward to the pastoral prayer as much as anything in the service and that they are learning how to pray by praying with me. Thus, the Sunday morning pastoral prayer is developing a priesthood of all believers in our church. As pastors, prayer is our life, and it is our life's work. It is our tool and our cure. We need to know the biology of prayer: our living, breathing dialogue with God. We need to know the chemistry of prayer: our interaction with the Word of God. We need to know the calculus of prayer: God's very nature, the Holy Trinity. Prayer is a curriculum for a lifetime. It teaches us prayer that meets God, that heals, and that is, above all, worship. Dave Hansen is pastor of Belgrade Community Church in Belgrade, Montana. In this column, he explores how church leaders from earlier generations can mentor us today. Copyright © 1996 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal. |             | |||||||||||||||||||
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