Does
the posture [of prayer] matter? Blaise Pascal, a devout believer and one of the
truly great minds of human history, reasoned that it did. In Pensees he wrote, "The external
must be joined to the internal to obtain anything from God, that is to say, we
must kneel, pray with our lips, etc., in order that proud man, who would not
submit himself to God, may now be subject to the Creator. To expect help from
these externals is superstition; to refuse to join them to the internal is
pride." Pascal's distinction is a penetrating one. Thinking that our
posture wins favor with God or that it ensures an answer to prayer reduces
prayer to magic; however, if we refuse to place ourselves under some
particular, reasonable physical discipline, our pride can separate us from
God...
The
posture is an aid to the specific mood of prayer. See for yourself how the mood
changes as the posture changes. Sit and pray, and prayer takes on a
conversational quality. Stand, and you feel you are making an appearance before
the King. Lift your hands, and a special sense of adoration engulfs your
prayer. Put your head down, and you feel awe, humility, perhaps even shame;
lift your head, and there is a sense of glad openness, to a point where
unconsciously you may smile...
The
wrong posture for a given occasion can impede prayer, whereas the right posture
aids in our reach to God.
-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in Longing
to Pray: How the Psalms Teach Us to Talk with God
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