Agnes Cunningham, sscm
Forms of Prayer in Christian Spirilualiiy What form is prayer to take today? Will ils expression today differ from that of the fifteenth or the fi/th century? Agnes Cunningham suggests that the most contempomry jdrm of prayer comes to us from the Christian past.
Treatises on prayer ordinarily include a discussion of what are referred to as, "the forms of prayer." In terms of form prayer can be considered in reference to the questions: How do w~r ought we--to pray? In what manner is Christian prayer appropriately and authentically expressed? Thus, the fonns which prayer may take are related not only to the presuppositions of its underlying definition or to a concept of that deity to whom the prayer is addressed. Prayer forms depend, as weil, on the posture of the individual whose prayer somehow gives at¡ticulation to the reality of the persan and to the truth of what he is about. In the tradition of Christian spirituality, prayer is necessarily perceived as Christian, that is, as deriving from our solidarity with Christ and from the possibility of our approach to the transcendent, triune God in and through the Incantate Ward, the Image of the Father: Jesus Christ. The forms of Christian prayer, bath classic and contemporary, are consequent on this perception. Prayer "in the Name of Jesus;" prayer "in the Spirit of Jesus": what form or fol'lns is such 89