Question from Nathalie that raises an interesting topic …
… is it okay to pray for Jesus? I mean, I know we pray TO Jesus, but… I really would like to pray for him… because he and his message are often misunderstood, misused and abused – to serve self-centered ends. I guess he probably doesn’t NEED us to pray for him, but… I don’t know. I just want to pray for him.
Hi Nathalie, Good question! My first response is that yes, it’s okay to pray for Jesus. Prayer, after all, is talking and listening to God. When we pray for someone, we are in relationship with God and bringing the person and her/his needs before God. At their heart, “praying for” and “praying to” are actually more like “praying with” than anything. So with Jesus, we are deepening our relationship with him, consciously bringing the cares and concerns of Jesus to the forefront while we are with him. While Jesus is God and so does not “need” anything per se, prayers for Jesus are like what you wrote — that he and his message be understood and lived from the heart.
Another way to understand “praying for Jesus”, is more along the lines of how the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures spoke of “blessing God”. You’ll find this kind of language in many places, especially in psalms and canticles. One of my most favorite ones is the canticle of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel 3 (in a Catholic Bible). The three were tossed into a white-hot furnace as punishment for going against King Nebuchadnezzar’s decree to worship his gods, not the God of Israel. Instead of certain death, the three walked around singing and blessing God. Here’s part of their canticle:
Bless the Lord, all people on earth; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, O Israel; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, you priests of the Lord; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, you servants of the Lord; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the righteous; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, you who are holy and humble in heart; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever. (NRSV translation)
How else might we understand “praying for Jesus”? What is your own experience of this?
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello Sister Julie,
I read Nathalie’s post last night and thought about what she had written after my evening prayers; I was happy to see your response this morning. To me, this poem by Thomas Merton is a prayer to our Lord (but then to me, all of Thomas Merton’s writings resonate within my heart and bring me to prayerful and thoughtful moments):
“Today, Father, this blue sky lauds you.
The delicate green and orange flowers of the tulip poplar tree praise you.
The distant blue hills praise you, together with the sweet-smelling air that is full of brillant light.
The bickering flycatchers praise you with the lowing cattle and the quails that whistle over there.
I too, Father, praise you, with all these my brothers,
and they give voice to my own heart and my own silence.
We are all one silence, and a diversity of voices.
You have made us together;
you have made us one and many,
you have placed me here in the midst as witness, as awareness, and as joy.
Here I am.
In me the world is present, and you are present.
I am a link in the chain of light and of presence.
You have made me a kind of center, but a center that is nowhere.
And yet also I am “here.”
To be here with the silence of Sonship in my heart
is to be a center in which all things converge upon you.
That is surely enough for the time being.”
Wow. I’ve got to get my hands on some Merton. What he writes resonates so clearly with how I feel inside about the Sonship!
As for what it means to me to pray for Jesus, I suppose “praying with” conveys the idea better. Lately when I approach Jesus in prayer, I am overwhelmed with sadness and pain in my heart. It hurts and I weep. I think… I think that, since Jesus is Infinite Love and Love requires a willingness to suffer, I think that maybe Jesus still suffers… because he still loves. And that’s what it feels for me when I connect in prayer with him – that I’m somehow tapping into his Infinite Heart and he’s sharing his pain with me. Only after I have experienced this outpouring of sorrow do I then sense our Lord’s peace washing everything away and wrapping me in comforting stillness.
I don’t pretend to know why my prayer with Jesus is so intense. It’s downright agonizing, but… I can’t NOT go to him. I sit at his feet, with my head in his lap and just listen and talk to him, completely open to everything he wants to give me.
Loving greatly requires a willingness to suffer greatly. Maybe this is what Jesus is trying to make me understand. It’s not that he WANTS me to suffer, but there’s no doubt in my mind he’s drilling it home that True Love, Divine Love, is inextricably bound to True Suffering.
And one has to be willing to say “Fiat!” to both if one wants to be a faithful and loving disciple.
Nathalie,
Yours is a very beautiful and moving message.
The poem I quoted comes from Thomas Merton’s book “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander” and also “Thomas Merton, a Book of Hours”.
Nathalie:
Your words touch me profoundly. How beautiful. Thank you. I can understand how you are overwhelmed with sadness and pain in your heart. That sometimes happens to me. In my case, my sorrow originates from the notion that I feel so bad that people don’t live by the teachings of Jesus in spite of his clear-cut and redeeming message of love and forgiveness. I feel like most of the world is betraying him – including me at times. The irony here is that his message is not primarily for his own benefit but for ours. How long will we all live as our own worst enemies hurting those we love?
I have never tried to pray “for” Jesus. I guess it doesn’t really make sense to me – at least at first glance. I do pray “to” Jesus and have tried to “comfort” him from what I perceived might have been his sorrow. I suppose you could pray “for” the separate, human Jesus. But how about the Jesus that is integrated into the Trinity? This is all too confusing for me – I know – they are one and the same … but then they are not? I suppose if you authentically convey to God what is in your heart, it will be understood and the communication appreciated. When it comes down to it, so much of it all is mystery.
dee
yet jesus needs nothing from us.
Hi Julie!
The canticle in your post very much reminds me of the doxologies we sing every Sunday in the Methodist Church (They are used in lots of other faiths as well). Ever since I was a little girl, this has been one of my favorite parts of the worship service. I think it is because it is so uplifting and the congregation always sings it with gusto!
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow
Praise Him, all creatures here below
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Amen
And
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below: Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise God, the source of all our gifts! Praise Jesus Christ, whose power uplifts!
Praise the Spirit, Holy Spirit! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Yes , we can to pray for Jesus.
I just wanted to add that when I pray for Jesus, I direct my prayer to God the Father, asking him in his infinite mercy and compassion to ease the woundedness of his Son. As I said above, I’m convinced that Jesus, the risen Christ, still suffers. He is risen but still wounded. He is resurrected, but forever bears the marks of his ordeal. They still hurt him in his soul, if not in his body. So when I pray to God on behalf of Jesus, I simply offer up my heart, as small and imperfect as it is, and ask the Father to let me help comfort his Son by allowing me to share in his pain, if such will help, even if only in the smallest measure.
What a beautiful thread!
Singing or chanting is one of my favorite ways to pray, and this Taize chant is one of my favorite prayers:
Bless the Lord, My Soul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGEjKV6eDxY&feature=related
Blessings, Vivian