Living Wittily

Kierkegaard as man of prayer

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200px-Kierkegaard " To pray, to know how to pray, becomes more and more difficult the more one prays. The more one understands what he is trying to do – to have a relationship with God – the more presumptuous this appears to be…The more one comes to realise the difficulty of prayer, the more one relaises that in a sense the only real prayer is that one might be enabled to pray; then prayer becomes a silent surrendering of everything to God…

For one who truly struggles in prayer, there always seems to be something more upon his heart. One must become transparent before God in all one's weakness and hope, but this is difficult indeed. This resolution of faith is hard, and yet  when one has prayed to exhaustion as one can weep to exhaustion, then there is only one thing more: Amen."

This from Lefevre's chapter on Kierkegaard as man of prayer. He goes on to illustrate by citing Kierkegaard himself:

"I almost feel the urge to say no single word more except this: Amen: for my gratitude to Providence for what It has done for me, overwhelms me…but thus even, through the unspeakable grace and help of God have I become myself."

"It is wondeful how God's love overwhelms me – alas, ultimately I know of no truer prayer than what I pray over and over again, that God will allow me and not be angry with me because I continuously thank him for having done and for doing, yes, and for doing so indescribably much more for me than I ever expected."

The Prayers of Kierkegaard, Perry D LeFevre, (University of Chicago Press: 1956), pages 201-2.

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