Prayer

Section 1: Why Pray? 761 words

Questions for Reflection

A connection with God is stressed in every major faith tradition. What has been your experience with connecting with the divine? Have you ever used prayer in this way?
Some people pray regularly; others have never tried it or gave it up long ago. Where do you fall on that spectrum, and what shaped that?
When life feels overwhelming or deeply joyful, do you feel an impulse to reach out to something beyond yourself? Can you think of a time where you felt such an impulse to share with the group?

Reading

Why do we pray? If God already knows what is in our hearts, what is the point of putting it into words?

Abdu'l-Baha, the son of Baha'u'llah (the founder of the Baha'i Faith), answers this with a simple analogy. When one friend loves another, is it not natural to want to say so? Even if the other person already knows, the impulse to express it is real. He explains: "It is true that God knows the wishes of all hearts; but the impulse to pray is a natural one, springing from man's love to God." [1] Prayer, in other words, is not information for God. It is an expression of a relationship. Like a child calling out for a parent who is already in the room, the act of reaching out is itself the point. %%FLAG: I don't like the prayer is not information for God%%

And this act of reaching out turns out to be among the most powerful things a human being can do. The Baha'i writings describe prayer in extraordinary terms. Abdu'l-Baha says:

"There is nothing sweeter in the world of existence than prayer. Man must live in a state of prayer. The most blessed condition is the condition of prayer and supplication. Prayer is conversation with God." [2]

Conversation with God. And this conversation does real things. The Baha'i writings describe prayer can be "a fire that will burn away the veils which have shut me out from Thy beauty, and a light that will lead me unto the ocean of Thy Presence." [3] Prayer "creates spirituality, creates mindfulness and celestial feelings, begets new attractions of the Kingdom and engenders the susceptibilities of the higher intelligence." [4]

Prayer burns away obstacles, draws us closer to God, and cultivates capacities we did not know we had. For those uncertain about how to begin, Abdu'l-Baha offers reassurance: "Prayer need not be in words, but rather in thought and attitude." [5] It can start with something as quiet as turning the heart in the direction of God.

The Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'i Faith, captures how this quiet turning renews us:

"Prayer is the essential spiritual conversation of the soul with its Maker, direct and without intermediation. Like the morning's dew, it brings freshness to the heart and cleanses it, purifying it from attachments of the insistent self." [6]

Dew does not force its way into the ground; it arrives gently and gradually softens the ground. Prayer works the same way.

But the effects go deeper still. Abdu'l-Baha offers another image:

"When one supplicates to his Lord, turns to Him and seeks bounty from His Ocean, this supplication brings light to his heart, illumination to his sight, life to his soul and exaltation to his being. When the vessel is enlarged the water increases, and when the thirst grows the bounty of the cloud becomes agreeable to the taste of man. This is the mystery of supplication and the wisdom of stating one's wants." [7]

Prayer makes us more capable. It enlarges the vessel itself. A person who prays regularly is being gradually reshaped, the way a riverbed is slowly widened by the water that runs through it. Our capacity to receive, to understand, and to serve grows through the practice of sincere prayer.

Questions for Discussion

Abdu'l-Baha says the impulse to pray springs naturally from love. Does that match your experience? Have you ever felt pulled toward prayer (or something like it) without anyone telling you to?
The readings describe prayer as something that burns away veils, creates spirituality, and enlarges our inner capacity. Have you experienced a time when a spiritual practice seemed to change you rather than simply change your circumstances?
Abdu'l-Baha says prayer "need not be in words." If prayer can be as simple as a thought or an attitude, what does that open up for someone who has never prayed before, or who left it behind?

Section 2: The Gift of Revealed Prayer 915 words

Questions for Reflection

Section 2 explores the gift of revealed prayers and how prayer connects to action. When you think about prayer, do you imagine it more as something you do for yourself, something you do for God, or something else entirely?
The Baha'i Faith teaches that certain prayers were revealed by God with a special power. Have you ever encountered words, in any tradition, that felt like they carried weight beyond ordinary language? What was that experience like?
The readings will also look at how prayer connects to action. In your own life, have you noticed that what you focus on inwardly tends to shape what you do outwardly? Can you think of an example?

Reading

Most of us have had the experience of wanting to pray but not knowing what to say. We feel something, a pull toward gratitude, or a weight we want to lay down, but our own words feel small next to the size of what we are feeling. We stumble, repeat ourselves, or give up and say nothing at all.

The Baha'i Faith speaks directly to this struggle. Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha, and the Bab did not merely teach about prayer. They revealed prayers, specific words given to humanity to use. These are not ordinary compositions. Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, explains that certain prayers "have been invested by Baha'u'llah with a special potency and significance, and should therefore be accepted as such and be recited by the believers with unquestioning faith and confidence, that through them they may enter into a much closer communion with God." [8]

In practice, this means there is an entire book of prayers revealed by Baha'u'llah, the Bab, and Abdu'l-Baha covering every aspect of life, from healing to forgiveness to guidance to gratitude. Baha'is themselves are called upon to recite at least one of three obligatory prayers every day, recognizing that this daily practice sustains their spiritual life. But these prayers are not reserved for Baha'is alone. They are available to anyone. They are Baha'u'llah's gift: words carrying a special potency, ready to be used by anyone willing to leverage them to connect with God.

When our own vocabulary falls short, the revealed prayers offer us the language. These prayers provide a language that only God Himself could offer and reciting them effects us profoundly. In referring to the potency of the long obligatory prayer, Baha'u'llah says: "It hath been revealed in such wise that if it be recited to a rock, that rock would stir and speak forth; and if it be recited to a mountain, that mountain would move and flow." [9]

The words are potent. They are all the more potent if recited with love:

"Intone, O My servant, the verses of God that have been received by thee, as intoned by them who have drawn nigh unto Him, that the sweetness of thy melody may kindle thine own soul, and attract the hearts of all men." [10]

The way we say the words matters. Abdu'l-Baha explains: "Words without love mean nothing. If a person talks to you as an unpleasant duty, with no love or pleasure in his meeting with you, do you wish to converse with him?" [5] Reciting a prayer with attention and reverence is itself a spiritual act, but the spirit behind the words matters just as much.

But prayer does not only transform us inwardly. Sincere prayer has the effect of "transmuting earthly inclinations into heavenly attributes and inspiring selfless service to humankind." [12] Prayer feeds the soul. That nourishment provides increased capacity, and that increased capacity powers us to actively work to better the world.

Think of ourselves as reeds. A reed that is blocked with dirt cannot carry water. But a reed that has been cleared out becomes an instrument; water flows through it freely. Prayer is what clears us out. It removes the distractions, the ego, the fear that block us from acting with love. When we pray sincerely, we are not just filling ourselves up. We are making space for something larger to move through us. The kindness we show, the patience we bring to difficulty, the service we offer to others, these become expressions of something deeper than our own willpower. They become God's love, operating through a human life.

Prayer does not end when we open our eyes. It continues in how we treat the person sitting next to us, the work we do, the way we move through the world. A prayer cherished by Baha'is around the world captures this beautifully:

"O God, make me a hollow reed, from which the pith of self hath been blown, so that I may become a clear channel through which Thy love may flow to others." [13]

Questions for Discussion

The reading describes revealed prayers as having a "special potency." Have you ever experienced words, whether in prayer, poetry, or scripture, that seemed to do something to you beyond what you could explain? What made those words different from ordinary language?
Baha'u'llah says to "intone" the verses of God so that their sweetness may "kindle thine own soul." What do you think changes when we say words aloud, slowly and with attention, compared to reading them silently or quickly?
The reading describes prayer as what makes us "hollow reeds" for God's love to flow through. How do you understand the relationship between your inner spiritual life and your outward engagement with the world?

Citations 264 words

Abdu'l-Baha, cited by J. E. Esslemont, Baha'u'llah and the New Era: An Introduction to the Baha'i Faith (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing, 2006, 2017 printing), p. 106.
Abdu'l-Baha, cited in Star of the West, vol. 8, no. 4 (17 May 1917), p. 41.
Baha'u'llah, in Baha'i Prayers: A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Baha'u'llah, the Bab, and Abdu'l-Baha (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 2002, 2017 printing), pp. 7-8.
Abdu'l-Baha, cited in Star of the West, vol. 8, no. 4 (17 May 1917), p. 41.
Abdu'l-Baha, as quoted by Miss E. S. Stevens in the Fortnightly Review, 1911.
The Universal House of Justice, message to the Baha'is in Iran, 18 December 2014.
Abdu'l-Baha, cited in J. E. Esslemont, Baha'u'llah and the New Era, 5th rev. ed. (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1987), p. 93.
From a letter dated 10 January 1936 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, quoted in Baha'i Prayers, p. 301.
Baha'u'llah, cited in The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting, compiled by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.
Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, CXXXVI, par. 2, p. 334.
From a letter dated 8 December 1935 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, published in Prayer and Devotional Life, no. 71, p. 31.
The Universal House of Justice, message to the Baha'is in Iran, 18 December 2014.
A prayer widely used in the Baha'i community; authorship unverified by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.