Dr. Bernard McGinn asks the question what does it mean to pray? Both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament prescribe prayer as an essential element of religious life and often provide models for praying. Yet believers understand prayer and practice it in different ways. Is prayer only the practice of “saying prayers,” or is there a deeper meaning to prayer, a life attitude that marks all we do? The great mystics in the Christian tradition have been among those most concerned with exploring the inner meaning of prayer. Their answers vary, as to be expected, but they provide much to ponder as we think about what it is to pray. Two of the most influential and challenging late medieval mystics, Meister Eckhart (d. 1328) and Julian of Norwich (d. ca. 1420), meditated on the nature of prayer and offered profound and often surprising teaching about what it means to pray. Their views are different, but overlapping in many particulars. Both challenge us to think about what we are doing when we pray.
14 дек 2020
