While reading Richard Foster's superb book, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, I came across the name George Buttrick and his own book entitled simply, Prayer. I began to look for this book, and it took quite a while, but I finally found an old paperback edition. This morning I was reading it, and Buttrick had this to say about our time and our prayer life. It is the kind of thing we need to be reminded of about once a week.
"How shall we find time to pray? The very question shows the disproportion of our life. 'First things' are not 'first.' Three hundredth things, the make of an automobile, the fashion of a coiffure, are now first; and 'first things' have dropped out of sight.
"St. Ignatius required of initiates in his order an initial thirty days of silence. Luther habitually prayed for three hours each day. Jesus often prayed all night, and said that 'men ought always to pray, and not to grow weary in praying'(Luke 18:1).
"If prayer is friendship with God, that friendship should rule all our time. Work or play should wait on prayer, not prayer on work or play. But since our age is frenzied, since with all the time gained from time-saving devices we have ever less time to live, this fact is worth stress: prayer saves time, and the saving is genuine.
"When a man prays, his thought is proportioned and clear: evil memories are purged to save him from distraction, and he can meet responsibility with confidence. Another man may lack concentration, fill time with lost motion, and delay or blunder in decisions; but the praying man is in tune with life.
"It is no accident that Paul could be prodigious and versatile in labour, as tent-maker, friend, traveler, administrator, preacher, writer, theologian: he was much in prayer. His nature was like a cathedral: many an arch and aisle, many a carving and picture, many a chapel, many a peal of bells, but all brought to focus and purpose in an altar.
"Prayer saves time. We should not offer God the shreds and tatters of our day. But, if events crowd and responsibilities summon, prayer's brevity can be atoned in prayer's sincerity. Five minutes in the morning, arrow flights of prayer during the day, and fifteen minutes at night do not seem too large a demand for life's highest Friendship. That time spent in prayer can conquer time." -- George Buttrick (1942)
In our high-stressed, fast-paced world, there is a gentle continual reminder to make time for the Eternal, to allow Him to invade this space-time realm, and to enter and transform our hearts.
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2 comments:
While hunting for a copy of George Butterick's book on prayer, I happened upon your blog. Although it didn't help me locate a copy of the book, I was refreshed by the thoughts it contains. Thank you.
While hunting for a copy of George Butterick's book on prayer, I happened upon your blog. Although it did not help me locate a copy of the book, I was refreshed by the written words. Thank you.
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