Is Ziegler on the money? Yes and No. (Main Forum)

by Jerome , Thursday, June 21, 2012, 23:40 (338 days ago) @ James

The position about the efficacy of prayer being promoted by Ziegler seems to be dependent on a very old fashioned and stifling definition of ‘prayer’.
We know very well that it is pretty pointless to pray that we might win the lottery.
We talk about the meaning behind the words in the Bible and so it is with the words of ‘Our Father’.
I remember a reflection about Prayer presented by Helen that I found much more meaningful.
Prayer surely is not an act of begging and grovelling or a performance.
I go back to a reflection by Abraham Herschel that brings home to me the sense of openness to the purpose of life and creation.
It is a process of getting tuned into goodness, into ‘God’.
In doing so we contemplate our own options in the light of Christ’s way and seek pathways that make our lives a positive contribution to creation. I suppose we can call that ‘spirituality’.

Just recently I met a quote from John Wesley:
"Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as ever you can."

I find those words and those of Abraham Herschel so constructive, meaningful and inspirational.