A Majestic River Runs Through Our Prayers

Last updated on: April 11, 2021 at 9:08 am by Paul Louis Metzger

A Majestic River Runs Through Our Prayers 2021-04-11T09:08:08-07:00 Paul Louis Metzger

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A mighty mountain stream making its way to the river in the valley below

This weekend I recalled a homeless person saying his greatest fear was dying alone. Would there be anyone there when he departs? Would anyone remember him after he is gone? You don’t have to be homeless in a physical sense to fear isolation. The dread of isolation is no respecter of persons. If you’re a praying person, you may cry out to God to take away your anonymity and loneliness, even the fear of praying alone. But you are never alone in prayer. Just this week, Pope Francis spoke on this subject. In a meditation on “the connection between prayer and the communion of saints,” Francis said, “when we pray, we never do so alone: even if we do not think about it, we are immersed in a majestic river of invocations that precedes us and proceeds after us. A majestic river.” (For the Pope’s full address, refer here.)

I am not praying alone when I am interceding for my son at his bedside in the hospital. And regardless of Christopher’s level of cognizance in his comatose state, the majestic river of prayer involving countless others flows through his room and carries him and me along. I feel the prayers and meditations of multitudes so many times, like my cherished friend Ross who prayed at Christopher’s bedside last night. I cannot explain it, or put it into words. How in the world are my family and I holding it all together? The crisis situation is relentless. But so, too, are the prayers, caring thoughts, and contemplations of so many people. I love how my esteemed friend and religion journalist of many years Nancy Haught puts it in her blog post on Pope Francis’ meditation:

As the pandemic grinds on and ordinary human life proves relentless, my personal prayer list may be the longest I’ve ever wrestled with. I know and love so many people who are grieving right now. Each person exists in a separate world of loss, fear and very fragile hope. It is hard to know what to pray for. I know miracles sometimes happen. I know they don’t always. And I know that what looks like a miracle may actually turn out to be another, often higher hurdle, one that causes us to stumble again. I often pray my own litany, reciting and reflecting on each person by name. I ask God to be with each of them and with those who love them, using their names if I know them, too. But I must be honest, sometimes even that simple prayer is hard to put into words.

Yes, the challenges of life are relentless. And so, it is reassuring to know that the prayers of the saints like Nancy are relentless, too. Yes, it is not always easy to articulate our prayers. And so, it is encouraging to know that we do not pray alone. God’s Spirit intercedes for us in prayer! As the Apostle Paul writes, “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27; NIV)

My own prayers join the chorus, not simply for my son and the family, but also for those whose struggles I know—people in our increasing circle of care who await news of whether their loved ones have cancer or how advanced the cancer or some other critical condition is, and for those who have lost loved ones or who feel so alone. I am praying for my son’s care givers at the hospital and for you who demonstrate such care in reading my words. I pray for the homeless and for others who feel so shut-in and isolated. You are not alone.

The Greek philosopher from Ephesus named Heraclitus remarked that we never step into the same river twice. We can debate the meaning of this image in his thought, namely, whether he thought concerning things that we could never “encounter them twice,” or that “some things stay the same only by changing.” (For the philosophically inclined, refer here for the discussion) Regardless of that debate, the river of life never ceases, nor does the majestic river of prayer. The prayers of the saints continue to flow with dynamic force, as the prayers of intercession and thanksgiving grow.

Pope Francis spoke of such prayers as expansive and interconnected:

Those prayers that are good are “expansive”, like anything that is good; they propagate themselves continuously, with or without being posted on social networks: from hospital wards, from moments of festive gatherings to those in which we suffer silently… One person’s pain is everyone’s pain, and one person’s happiness is transmitted to someone else’s soul. Pain and happiness, all a story, stories that create the story of one’s own life, this story is relived through one’s own words, but the experience is the same.

My friends and pastoral leaders Noelani and Ed pressing into prayer for divine “assistance” and mercy below my son’s window outside the hospital.

Prayers for healing and comfort are creative, expansive, and interconnected, leading to greater functionality and wholeness. The process and results of prayer are like “brain functions…made possible by circuits of spiking neurons, connected together by microscopic, but highly complex links called synapses.” In view of what I have learned about prayer and the human brain, I pray that my son Christopher’s traumatized and severely damaged brain can regrow new connections between cells: “When adult brain cells are injured, they revert to an embryonic state,… In their newly adopted immature state, the cells become capable of re-growing new connections that, under the right conditions, can help to restore lost function.” Please join me in praying for new connections, right conditions, and restoration of lost function for my son’s brain.

Also, please join me in praying for our damaged relationships and the feverish factions in the surrounding society here and across the globe. Prayer is the first step in making healing connections, as Pope Francis shares:

To pray for others is the first way to love them and it moves us toward concretely drawing near. Even in conflictual moments, a way of dissolving the conflict, of softening it, is to pray for the person with whom I am in conflict. And something changes with prayer. The first thing that changes is my heart and my attitude. The Lord changes it so it might be turned into an encounter, a new encounter so that that the conflict does not become a never-ending war.

Paul never met the Ephesian philosopher Heraclitus, when the Apostle visited Ephesus. Heraclitus lived several centuries before him. But we meet the Apostle in prayer every time we utter these words of intercession, which feature the force of God’s abundant, relentless, and ever-flowing love. Let’s join Paul in prayer, as recorded in his epistle to the Ephesians:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21; NIV)

God’s abiding love for us, like this love-inspired prayer than runs through the ages, is a mighty and majestic river. We are not alone.

Uncategorized

About Paul Louis Metzger

Paul Louis Metzger, Ph.D., is Professor of Theology & Culture, Multnomah University & Seminary; Director of The Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins; and Author of numerous works, including Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction (co-authored with Brad Harper) and Setting the Spiritual Clock: Sacred Time Breaking Through the Secular Eclipse. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

April 10, 2021

Journal on the Journey of Life and Faith Crises

Next Post

April 13, 2021 Time Tunnel: the Ancient of Days Holds Our Future

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month June 2025 April 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz