Sunday Faith Reflection

We do not know how to pray as we ought.

I smiled a little at this passage from today’s readings, which seemed quite appropriate, coming right after my Traditionalist Week:

The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God’s will.
Romans 8 26-27

I didn’t say much this week about the dangers of rigorism, but it is of course possible for a love of liturgy to devolve into a pedantic obsession with little details, and it’s also possible to get lost in liturgical snobbery and think that only we truly know how to pray. It’s good to read this passage and be reminded that none of us can truly “pray as we ought”; we’re constantly relying on the Holy Spirit to make the most of our feeble attempts.

As a parent, I’ve more frequently found myself urging my children not to be too judgmental of other people’s ways of praying. “You can’t really know what God is doing in another person’s soul.” Having been habituated to love beautiful liturgy, they look askance at sensual, campy, or offensively performative liturgical expression. That’s pretty normal, and it’s not as though I want them to like bad liturgy, but we need to retain a sense of proportion and humility. We all need to appeal earnestly to the Holy Spirit to help us learn to pray.

I’ll be doing more philosophy this week at Christendom Reborn. Looking forward to it!