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Creative Prayer
Brigid E. Herman (1875-1923) was a journalist and famous author who married a Presbyterian minister and wrote mainly on theological and devotional themes.
BOOKS on Prayer may be roughly divided into those which treat of its scientific aspect, whether it be from the standpoint of philosophy or from that of psychology, and those which are written with a purely devotional purpose. In these pages I have endeavoured to elucidate the meaning and value of prayer as a creative process, whereby the man who prays and his world are made anew.
In Chapter I. I have sought to present what I conceive to be the fundamental conditions of prayer as creative energy. " The worshipper," as Professor W. E. Hocking has it, " does not merely sustain, but creates. All beauty, as Plato thought, incites to reproduction. It incites perhaps to something more than reproduction to origination. Some superabundance there is in the vision of God which sends the seer back not to the old but to the new." This creative vision is a central element in Christian prayer.
In Chapters II. and III. I have dealt with two great aids to creative prayer Silence and Meditation trying to show that, so far from being the esoteric hobbies of mystical devotees, they are essential to the virile discipline of the spiritual life.
Prayer, however, is something more than vision; and if we define it purely in terms of vision, we are in danger of making the mistake of those who imagine that they are in the way because they happen to see the goal. With this danger in view, I have in Chapter IV. endeavoured to expound creative prayer as the soul’s pilgrimage from self to God. True prayer is man’s loving response to the love of God; and since Divine Love expressed itself in a supreme act of self -giving, nothing short of a generous and unreserved act of self -giving, on the part of man can constitute a worthy response. Prayer is not a spiritual romance or a psychic dream, but an act of devotion influencing the very depth of the soul, permeating the whole life and shaping every action. And since this self-surrender is not an isolated act, but involves a habitual and progressive discipline, a lifelong " conversion " from love of self to love of God, I have in Chapter V. set forth the way of self-denial as the path to power. In doing so, I have treated of the ascetic element in the spiritual life, not as a stoic discipline or a joyless self-immolation, but as a genuine and inevitable movement of love the souls joyous self-identification with Him who for man became incarnate and " emptied Himself of all but love."
In Chapters VI. and VII. I have sought to elucidate the corporate aspect of individual prayer an aspect often ignored by writers on corporate worship. Creative prayer is both an apostolate and a priesthood. The worshipper, lovingly identified with the redemptive purpose of God, is no longer a self-centred individual, but a priestly member of the Body of Christ. " Through Him dumb souls are eloquent "; in him Christ is pierced with the world’s sin. Wherever such an one lifts up his lonely soul to God, there is the Church and the Gospel, the Altar and the Sacrifice.
Originally published in 1921; may contain an occasional imperfection.
BOOKS on Prayer may be roughly divided into those which treat of its scientific aspect, whether it be from the standpoint of philosophy or from that of psychology, and those which are written with a purely devotional purpose. In these pages I have endeavoured to elucidate the meaning and value of prayer as a creative process, whereby the man who prays and his world are made anew.
In Chapter I. I have sought to present what I conceive to be the fundamental conditions of prayer as creative energy. " The worshipper," as Professor W. E. Hocking has it, " does not merely sustain, but creates. All beauty, as Plato thought, incites to reproduction. It incites perhaps to something more than reproduction to origination. Some superabundance there is in the vision of God which sends the seer back not to the old but to the new." This creative vision is a central element in Christian prayer.
In Chapters II. and III. I have dealt with two great aids to creative prayer Silence and Meditation trying to show that, so far from being the esoteric hobbies of mystical devotees, they are essential to the virile discipline of the spiritual life.
Prayer, however, is something more than vision; and if we define it purely in terms of vision, we are in danger of making the mistake of those who imagine that they are in the way because they happen to see the goal. With this danger in view, I have in Chapter IV. endeavoured to expound creative prayer as the soul’s pilgrimage from self to God. True prayer is man’s loving response to the love of God; and since Divine Love expressed itself in a supreme act of self -giving, nothing short of a generous and unreserved act of self -giving, on the part of man can constitute a worthy response. Prayer is not a spiritual romance or a psychic dream, but an act of devotion influencing the very depth of the soul, permeating the whole life and shaping every action. And since this self-surrender is not an isolated act, but involves a habitual and progressive discipline, a lifelong " conversion " from love of self to love of God, I have in Chapter V. set forth the way of self-denial as the path to power. In doing so, I have treated of the ascetic element in the spiritual life, not as a stoic discipline or a joyless self-immolation, but as a genuine and inevitable movement of love the souls joyous self-identification with Him who for man became incarnate and " emptied Himself of all but love."
In Chapters VI. and VII. I have sought to elucidate the corporate aspect of individual prayer an aspect often ignored by writers on corporate worship. Creative prayer is both an apostolate and a priesthood. The worshipper, lovingly identified with the redemptive purpose of God, is no longer a self-centred individual, but a priestly member of the Body of Christ. " Through Him dumb souls are eloquent "; in him Christ is pierced with the world’s sin. Wherever such an one lifts up his lonely soul to God, there is the Church and the Gospel, the Altar and the Sacrifice.
Originally published in 1921; may contain an occasional imperfection.
246 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 28, 2016
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