{"id":9538,"date":"2020-05-28T16:21:42","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=9538"},"modified":"2021-05-24T10:57:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T17:57:23","slug":"2020-onprayer","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2020-onprayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefly on Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">C.S.Lewis<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9539 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/prayer-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/prayer-6.jpg 512w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/prayer-6-300x73.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/prayer-6-450x109.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve just found in an old note-book a poem, with no author\u2019s name attached, which is rather relevant to something we were talking about a few weeks ago\u2014I mean, the haunting fear that there is no one listening, and that what we call prayer is soliloquy: someone talking to himself. This writer takes the bull by the horns and says in effect: \u2018Very well, suppose it is\u2019, and gets a surprising result.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the poem:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">They tell me, Lord, that when I seem<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">To be in speech with you,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Since but one voice is heard, it\u2019s all a dream,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">One talker aping two.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Sometimes it is, yet not as they<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Conceive it. Rather, I<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Seek in myself the things I hoped to say,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">But lo!, my wells are dry.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Then, seeing me empty, you forsake<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The listener\u2019s role and through<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">My dumb lips breathe and into utterance wake<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The thoughts I never knew<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And thus you neither need reply<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Nor can; thus, while we seem<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Two talkers, though are One forever, and I<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">No dreamer, but thy dream.<\/p>\n<p>Dream makes it too like Pantheism and was perhaps dragged in for the rhyme. But is he not right in thinking that prayer in its most perfect state is soliloquy?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9541 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/prayer-4-e1590708054118.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/links.biblegateway.mkt4731.com\/ctt?ms=NjUzMTE3MDYS1&amp;kn=16&amp;r=MjY3OTUzMzk3ODUS1&amp;b=0&amp;j=MTg4MzExMDQwOAS2&amp;mt=1&amp;rt=0\"><em>Letters to Malcolm<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer<\/em>. Copyright \u00a9 1964, 1963 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed \u00a9 1992, 1991 by Arthur Owen Barfield. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-9538","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/9538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/9538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15875,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/9538\/revisions\/15875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9538"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=9538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}