Gambit
Well-Known Member
Why pray to God? More specifically, why engage in supplication (or petitioning)?
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Why pray?
- Thread starter Gambit
- Start date
Because it is a form of focused meditation
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Do you feel good when you pray?
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Yea. It's a very good out and release. I find that even as the floor "hears" me it's a good
decent prayer.
In Ásatrú the Gods and Goddesses are our kin, albeit older, wiser and greater. We talk to our human relatives and ask them for help, compliment them, and complain to them so why not do the same with our divine relatives?
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Prayer is a silent or community form of giving reverence, talking with, or communing with someone or something. A person can pray to a toaster while another Zeus.
I pray to my grandmothers and ancestors. I communicate with them so I get to know about them, listen to them in different ways they communicate wit me--blessings I receive from everyday life, warnings (big ones) and such. I pray because the communication keeps me centered. It's somewhat meditative; but, unlike meditation (the siting still, no thoughts kind), you are literally engaging in interaction.
As one replier said, prayer feels good. It's desplaying an outer expression for inner devotion, reverence, submission, and/or otherwise.
I don't know about anyone else, but I like talking to those who mean something to me, which is why I pray: God is important to me.
I believe earnest prayer reaches the 'ears' of higher beings and they can assist the devotee if the conditions (many beyond our earthly sight) are right. The best prayers are for internal strength and guidance and not material affairs. Though, I can't say I'm one to practice prayer myself.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
No offense. But It sounds like you have a very anthropocentric concept of God.
No, not really. I don't think one little statement like the one I made can possibly give that impression of my view of God.
lovemuffin
τὸν ἄρτον τοῦ ἔρωτος
I'm not sure quite how to express this, but with supplication, I think at times it is something which is almost constitutive of being human. It's not the fruit of some considered rational process. There is not an expectation of an exact request being filled. There is an experience of contingency and precariousness and an existential crying out to the "Other". That is certainly not all prayer, but it's something that to me is very human
The Gods/Goddesses are my mentors and friends. It's good to keep in touch, ask for assistance, ***** at them or about my problems, give thanks, etc. I don't pray much, though.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Well, you gave me the impression that you talk to God just like you were talking to your best friend.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
That makes sense in a polytheistic system.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Contemplative prayer is.
Why not? Better question IMO.
You do it because sometimes you need to ask for guidance. You won't get it if you don't ask for it.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Do you consider your relationship to the divine to be, more or less, like any other kind of personal relationship?
Gambit
Well-Known Member
I'll be blunt. To petition God seems to me to indicate a lack of faith.