Prayer - from CS Lewis' perspective

“Master, they say that when I seem

To be in speech with you,

Since you make no replies, it’s all a dream

– One talker aping two.

They are half right, but not as they

Imagine; rather, I

Seek in myself the things I meant to say,

And lo! the wells are dry.

Then, seeing me empty, you forsake

The Listener’s role, and through

My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake

The thoughts I never knew.

And thus you neither need reply

Nor can; thus, while we seem

Two talking, thou art One forever, and I

No dreamer, but thy dream.

– C.S. Lewis, 1964

I love the third stanza. Imagine ... you are empty ... dry ... nothing ... God will provide the words for the prayer. He knows what we need to pray and will, when we need, breathe the prayer through us himself. Isn't that comforting???

CS Lewis wrote quite a bit on prayer. I am reading Letters to Malcolm right now. And trying to process it. More on that in another post.

2 random CS Lewis quotes on prayer:

• The primary object of prayer is to know God better; we and our needs should come second.
• Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine.

And this one just made me laugh out loud.  Oh we humans are a piece of work...

--There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."