Prayer is perhaps the most intimate of daily Christian spiritual practice. In prayer we have the opportunity to consciously open ourselves up to our creator, to invite His interaction within our lives and to share the most private regions of our heart.
While prayer can be private, it can also be public, supportive, contemplative, confessional, exhortational, intercessional, formulaic or some other form that facilitates communication with the Holy Other. Prayer might not come with words but by the groaning of the soul, through artful expression or through action.
We may offer up prayer selflessly, selfishly, absentmindedly or accidentally but it has been and will always remain an intimate connection to the heart of God available at all times for all people.
By examination of the historical views of prayer and prayerfulness we will discover a dynamic intimacy with the heart of God through expressions and thoughts that would otherwise be lost to us or diluted by time. Through the profiling of historical personalities and their prayer and contemplative lives, we will discover how such contemplation enhanced their relationship with God and learn from them so as to enhance and edify our own prayerfulness.
Over the next couple of weeks I will be profiling 5 historic figures and hopefully we can learn together from their examples.
