Further to “An Anatomy of Prayer” (22 December 2016):
In my last long post on prayer I tried to discern the nature
and the modalities of that curious form of energy. The main form I considered
there was petitionary prayer, both for oneself and for others: it is, after
all, the most intuitive and (thus) the most common form of prayer. “Please,
God, let . . .” I did, however, touch on another form of prayer: prayer of
thanksgiving. One cannot, I said, always be asking.
Thanksgiving
has its own peculiarities. The first is that if one recognises that petitionary
prayer cannot and should not concern Huck Finn’s fish-hooks, it is illogical to
give thanks when fish-hooks come one’s way. One cannot have it both ways, our
reason tells us. If God does not micro-manage creation; if whether or not we
get something specific or have something specific happen to us is not “God’s
will”; then logically we should neither pray for it nor give thanks for it. And
yet those of us who have grown used to addressing the Father (and/or the Son,
and/or the Holy Ghost) as we are encouraged to do, do often utter such brief
and illogical prayers of thanksgiving. Should we stop? I don’t think so; and
the reason is that while pointless and thus unfulfilled petitions tend to
plunge us into depression, illogical thanksgivings will make us better human
beings by connecting our joy to our Creator. Who is, if only in the second
degree, its Creator: not that He gave
us the fish-hooks, but that He is the source of joy.
The second
peculiarity of thanksgiving prayer is that it rarely concerns the real and
proper objects. This derives from the nature of petitionary prayer. If we pray
for the things that we may properly expect to be granted; if we pray to be
nearer to God and to become His more faithful children; if we pray for more
discernment, for more generosity; then if and when such things are granted us,
we will probably not give thanks for them, because to do so would make us
resemble the Pharisee in the temple who thanked God that he was not as other
men. “Thank you, God, for making me such a generous person” sounds repellent,
and is. The solution here, I believe, is one of nuance. In the first place, if
we have asked for a more discerning spirit and we realise after a certain lapse
of time that we are indeed able to understand better God’s nature and will,
then we may properly give thanks, if we
do so very quietly and in private, and if we recognise that we still have a
long way to go. The same goes for increases in generosity, humility, et cetera.
All this
said, thanksgiving is a good and joyous state of mind and soul, and should be
encouraged wherever possible. It increases mental health, humility, and faith.
And it is an indispensable complement to petitionary prayer. Together, these
forms of prayer form two sides of a triangle or trinity; my next post will
concern the third.
