COMMUNAL PRAYER
The Word
The Word as prayer Sister Annette Wagner, IWBS
R Contributor
ecognizing the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, as prayer calls for several considerations. Whenever speaking of God, it is essential to remember that anything we think we know about the inner relationships of the Persons in the Trinity is based on clues external to the Trinity itself. As the Word-become-one-of-us in an historical time and place, Jesus Christ is our best clue concerning the reality of the Divine Word as prayer. We start with our ideas of prayer and then turn to the Word. The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays. (Soren Kierkegaard) Surely this statement applies to the Word of God, who left behind the privileges of divine nature to become one of us. The element of change that fits both prayer and the Word can be traced throughout Salvation History as
recorded in Scripture and as still happening in personal encounters today. For the Word –as the expression of divinity’s nature of Love—seeks union with the beloved. The first two verses of the Book of Genesis introduce the Word’s union with what is external to the Trinity and its fruit. Various translations describe the earth as “formless and empty”; “waste and void”; “desolate”; “barren, with no form of life.” And then God spoke! Creation was provided form. Elements of the universe were given their setting and charged with responsibilities. The earth flourished with beauty and fruitfulness. Human beings were commissioned as stewards of it all. Sadly, as quickly as life was given, those entrusted with its care refused to cooperate. Scripture traces how those created by the Word of God gradually imposed upon themselves a crippling alienation from God. Then a deeper, more intimate union was accomplished. The first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke
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