2025-03-16 A Meditation on Prayers of the Saints

“4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Eph 4:1-16 ESV)

The prayers of the saints translate and reverberate, as this one abides the haunting thought, “I’ve turned evil”, and that one the, “Breakage is all I’ve accomplished”. The Christian Hope—and one that is understood even haltingly, sporadically, with fits and starts, in the unbelieving masses—is that Correction occurs upon the resolution to repent.

Upon the resolution to accept what is gifted our way, some modicum of Peaceful Heights that nonetheless are Conscientious: that our prayers trickle down and reverberate. The soldier in their duty-bound calm, constitution emblematic, gifted, exercised, and fortress-like, does Understand: we are heard by those who labor, and those who serve. We are heard by that old enemy the Serpent, who wrassles and tugs, who gesticulates and shakes off, words nonetheless still slightly Comprehended. Oh, the nerve of them, it says. Oh, isn’t that a precious thought, it murmurs.

The conviction, the sense of having abided some Evil, isn’t quite landed yet at home base, until the after-shocks occur, and Man sees astonishing interlocking gears at work: tears they come; hangups they arise; incongruities they malign; and shock reverberates through the frame. Because with our Savior we can begin to exorcise the demon of our deeds. With our Savior we can begin to Hearken to that coming War, knowing even that our own mistakes hastened or initiated its Arrival. Today, if we hear His voice… do not be like the unbelievers in the wilderness… is any of this landing home? Is anything Heard?

To lose our own sense of repugnant self-righteousness, is to Begin: to pray for the soldier—and for ourselves—alike for the commanding officer. It is to begin to repent wherever manifest ill or sin hampers us, hems us up, makes ludicrous our prayers, slightly. It is to feel a new Righteousness is within reach, precisely in contrast and accounting as to where we have dealt with the more sinister things: no fasting from foods will set those aright; we mock and deny our fastings past, because they comprised a False Gospel: that we could be made new in thus-and-such fashion.

No, we are made new upon strange Experiential Advantages, that those in power—those for whom we pray—some do not have. Meeting Christ. The Experience that not all things are black and white. The experience that there are other Entities “out there” besides just the church and its wandering outsiders. Oh, that we could join ranks, join hands, join in prayer. The experience: and the best are pent up with contrition while the worst show no shame; the experience of Immediately making contribution for the saints in the land, lending and offering up a prayer, rehearsing the silver bullet-mindset: where and how is the Solution found? What, after all, can I claim today, having been denied a hearing as to my own contrition? We are shunned when we would repent, and gaped at when we would soldier forward. This is true for all, not just those inducted into the Mystery. True for all, not just those beggarly and fleeting, but also for the staid church-goer and established priest. All have their day in the sun. All have their love for the loveless shown.

And then that love for the loveless shown. God is our body armor and our Shield: an enemy is oblivious, absent-minded, distracted until this strength is shown forth. Christ the Strong One, who became Meek but reminded us how we crucify the meeker mindset: already urgent was the reminder, He rose again.

The unaccompanied traveler: two are stronger than one, a threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecc 4:12). And even here, we do not need be reminded of our flailing and weaker judgments, but rather to be Loved and Accepted. Oh, how that would feel: were God the Father, Christ the Son, Dove-like the Spirit, to set aside an hour, a day, a week, a forty-days to pray for and love on us! Only never will it be enough: we Crucify. We declare War, innocently enough by some measures but horrifically implicated when we see the fruits of War, the longing for peace, the many dying and things ruined. The pain, the heads-down determined way of putting all frustration on hold in order to Fight. We were caught up in this inadvertently, and the Resistance to copacetic getting-along, was a deeper point of pride or innate frustration unable to be Converted. It was, after all, a theological basis—yes, Miss or Mister Prayer Warrior, your prayers brought this about!—that we fought over, because some were gifted more travelling mileage in the Spirit than others. Only this, that all comers share in that mileage, when once we’ve put on Display a modern and up-to-date Repentance. Come Lent. Come dayspring from on High. Come settled and comfy ones. Come all, who this day Love the Lord and Love His love-feast.

Shock, trauma, a broken neighborhood. Those who can afford to “love on” the postulant for a solid month or forty days… these are “wealthy” in a way not all share. Wealth that is unaccustomed to the pain or trauma or the fleeting nose-to-the-ground persistence in an environs called War. These are of a social echelon a bit more Established and Comfy, and yet the sentiment is there. The sentiment is to love those who will lash out and kill us in return. The sentiment is to cease to think a little submission, a little contrition, a little going with it, will solve matters: sir, madam, I had a more pressing Call that you ignored! For the widow staring from rocking chair out her window. For the kids raised up and early making life choices others had the luxury of waiting upon. For the principled masses seeing things as though in a war zone. All these things, they remind us that the sentiment is still shared across social strata: that Repentance is needed, that we repent inasmuch as we Share and Heal and Work for others, though details are desired. Details are not navel-gazing but rather Call… the details Call each of us to our own Altar… they Resurrect each of us into a Brighter Tomorrow.