For many of us, prayer has its moments of frustration, mechanicalness, even tedium. Just in case we wondered what, in the end, was the good of it all, I found a little text by the 13th-century beguine Mechtild of Magdeburg (who knew a thing or two about it) that picks us up by the scruff of the neck and firmly reminds us what it's all about.
The prayer of him that prays with all his might
has great power.
The embittered heart it softens,
the saddened heart it lightens,
the impoverished heart it turns to riches,
and the foolish heart to wisdom.
The timid heart it emboldens,
and the afflicted heart it relieves.
To the blinded heart it gives light,
and to the chilly heart a fiery warmth.
It calls down great God into the narrow heart,
and lifts the starved into God's plenty.
It reunites two lovers,
God and the soul,
in a wondrous place where they converse of love.
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