Phenomenology of Prayer Reflection

I have really enjoyed reading through The Phenomenology of Prayer. It’s provided some really good perspective on something that seems so easy. Prayer, as a part of daily life, really becomes monotonous and seems to loose its spark when things are going in our favor. Benson’s line on individual prayer has been eye opening: “the praying subject…does not play the role…the origin…of meaning” (Benson 16). Often times I think prayer looses its magic because we make it focused on our own needs and put more emphasis on our response than the call to us. By making our response the focus of our prayer we are praying in a posture exactly the opposite as Benson talks about. We leave no room for our identity to change because we aren’t inviting of Christ to do so. If the Lord had never called us, as he called Samuel, we would have no reason to pray. It begins with him, not ourselves. Reflecting on this has hanged the way I approach prayer—striving to become more and more decentered each day. It’s inevitable that I have a “self” problem and I need Jesus not to just fix my “sin” problem, but my “self” problem.