Henri Nouwen and The Way of the Heart - Part Five

Henri Nouwen ‘The Way of the Heart’ An Evaluation and Comparison to Scripture  

PART FIVE – Prayer Introduction - Prayer: 
 
Henri Nouwen states that ”solitude and silence can never be separated from unceasing prayer…Solitude and silence are the context within which prayer is practiced.” 

There is a practical contradiction here between Biblical prayer (speaking to God) and at the same time being silent. When Jesus disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he gave them good advice (Luke 11). He did not tell them to sit in solitude ‘listening to God’. His model prayer used words. And these words were expressed in a context of submitting our will to God’s. 

Words have been given to us for communication, and we are to use them in prayer. Though at the same time we must realize that even with our best words, our prayers can never adequately communicate our true needs. We are comforted knowing that in praying as we are taught, the limitation of our words is removed, as: 

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (Romans 8:26-27) 

We are to pray as we have been taught by Christ, with words, trusting that He who knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8) hears us. Not only hears our prayers, but according to Revelation 5:8, keeps them. 

The literal translation of the words ‘pray always’ is ‘come to rest’. The Greek word for rest is ‘hesychia’ and ‘hesychasm’ is the term which refers to the spirituality of the desert. A ‘hesychast’ is a man or woman who seeks solitude and silence as the ways to unceasing prayer. The prayer of the ‘hesychasts’ is a prayer of rest.’
 
The literal translation of the words ‘pray always’ is not ‘come to rest’! 

It is not difficult to find the meanings of the original Hebrew and Greek words used in the Bible manuscripts. Strong’s Concordance or Vine’s Expository Dictionary can provide a fuller meaning of the original words used, as English words often are not available to convey the fullness of a particular Hebrew or Greek word or phrase. 

These particular words do not even translate as a phrase in either Young’s Literal translation, the King James Bible, the English Standard Version or the American Standard Version. 

There are two places in the King James Bible (none in the NIV) where the phrase ‘pray always’ is used: Luke 21:36 and 2 Thess 1:11. Taking 2 Thess 1:11 and examining it (this is the only verse where that phrase translated ‘pray always’ is consistently used) the Greek words ‘proseuchomai’ (G4336) and ‘pantote’ (G3842) are used. The meaning for the first word is given as prayer offered to God i.e. supplicate, worship in earnestness. The second is ‘at all times’.

The Greek word used by Henri Nouwen as ‘rest’ (the meanng he intends is to be in mystical silence) – in its original meaning ‘hesychia’ doesn’t have anything to do with ‘pray always’. “Pray always’ means…’pray always’…pray in a Biblical way, simply and with words. 

The Prayer of the Mind 

One of these demonic ruses (against praying) is to make us think of prayer primarily as an activity of the mind that involves above all else our intellectual capacities. This prejudice reduces prayer to speaking with God or thinking about God. For many of us prayer means nothing more than speaking with God…Sometimes the absence of an answer makes us wonder if we might have said the wrong kind of prayers, but mostly we feel taken, cheated, and quickly stop ‘this whole silly thing”. 

It is quite understandable that we should experience speaking with real people, who need a word and who offer a response, as much more meaningful than speaking with a God who seems to be an expert at hide and seek. But there is another viewpoint that can lead to similar frustrations. This is the viewpoint that restricts the meaning of prayer to thinking about God…Prayer therefore requires hard mental work and is quite fatiguing…Since we already have so many other practical and pressing things on our minds, thinking about God becomes one more demanding burden…

How can we possibly expect anyone to find real nurture, comfort and consolation from a prayer life that taxes the mind beyond its limits and adds one more exhausting activity to the many already scheduled ones? …They wonder how they might really experience God. The charismatic movement is an obvious response to this new search for prayer. The popularity of Zen and the experimentation with encounter techniques in the churches are also indicative of a new desire to experience God. 

There is something being set up here called a ‘straw man’ argument. This is a debating technique where a position is deliberately misrepresented, so the debater’s own version of ‘truth’ will appear superior. 

First the idea of prayer using words is criticized as unproductive if the desired answers aren’t received. 

Second, the idea of thinking during prayer is criticized as ‘hard mental work’. 

Then the argument is put forth that since ‘our frustration tolerance is quite low’ it is a superior idea to allow ourselves to be more directed by our feelings, as in the charismatic movement. 

Zen (Buddhism) and encounter techniques (humanism) do not belong in a Godly church, though they are presented in this book as legitimate ways to ‘experience God’. If prayer is looked at primarily as an activity to engage in to obtain needs or desires, then one might feel ‘taken or cheated’ at not getting those desires met. 

This entire argument is made from the point of view of the desire of man, not the desire of God. It is a man-centered argument, placing man on the throne and God in service to Him.
Looking to the Bible for some guidance as to how to pray, we find: 

You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3) 

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. (Hebrews 5:7) 

Here we see that we do not get what we ask for in prayer because of our motives, because we want what we feel is our due. In the straw man argument set up by Henri Nouwen, the real reason the pray-er is frustrated is because he lacks the repentant humility that considers prayer a privilege. In his pride, he considers that God ought to answer his prayers. 

The God of the Bible, in His grace, allows us to come to Him in prayer. What an honour that is, to bring our praises, our petitions and requests, and to be heard! It is an affront to come before Him demanding answers! 

"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6)
 
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18: 1, 7-14) 

Looking to these words for our example, we can see that coming before God in prayer, with the self-righteous attitude in the ‘straw man’ argument Henri Nouwen gave, isn’t going to get his prayers answered because of his attitude, not his method of prayer! 

…Real prayer comes from the heart. It is about this prayer of the heart that the Desert Fathers teach us.
 
From a Biblical perspective, ‘real prayer’ comes from repentance and humility before an all-powerful God. It does not come from a heart seeking personal fulfillment, however righteous-sounding an argument may be made. 

The Prayer of the Heart
 
…Prayer is standing before the presence of God with the mind in the heart; that is, at that point of our being where there are no divisions or distinctions and where we are totally one.
 
Prayer can never make a person ‘one’ with God. When Christ returns for his Bride, the community of the faithful, she will be spotless and ready…and pure. Just as in Godly marriage the ‘two are not one’ until after the covenant is struck, so there is no ‘union’ prior to the wedding feast of the Lamb! 

Isaac the Syrian writes: ‘Try to enter the treasure chamber…that is within you and then you will discover the treasure chamber of heaven. For they are one and the same. If you succeed in entering one, you will see both. The ladder to this Kingdom is hidden inside you, in your soul. If you wish your soul clean of sin you will see there the rungs of the ladder which you may climb.’ 

We cannot cleanse our hearts from sin by looking within. We need to look without – to Christ, and trust in him ALONE. We cannot trust what comes out of our own will. The word translated ‘heart’ both in Hebrew and Greek does not refer to the emotions, but the will or mind of man. A man’s ‘heart’ is his self will. This is what Scripture says about the natural state of the human heart (will): 

The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (Genesis 6:5-6)
 
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer 17:9) 

Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? (Prov 20:9) 

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12-13)
 
This chapter is ended by attempting to show a link between mystical prayer and a pure heart.


Prayer and Ministry 

In this section the advice is given to quietly repeat a single word that holds some meaning for you, in order to create an inner stillness, to move to what the book calls the center of your being, where you will hear the ‘voice of God’. It is best, he says, to use words from Scripture. 

The discipline is not directed toward coming to a deeper insight into what it means that God is called our Shepherd, but toward coming to the inner experience of God’s shepherding action in whatever we think, say or do. 

Henri Nouwen also includes a story about a peasant who wondered how he could fulfill the ‘precept’ to pray without ceasing (1Thess 5:17), as he understood it. ‘How can I pray without ceasing when I am busy with many other things?” He found his answer in the words of a staretz, a mystical teacher. The peasant began to pray one short phrase thousands of times. Then, he says, ‘I gave up saying the prayer with my lips. I simply listened to what my heart was saying.’ 
 
The verse the peasant began with, in its context, has nothing to do with a spiritual discipline, or of replacing all prayers with a single ‘prayer’ of a repetitious few words. The verse has to do with encouraging each other and building each other up. It is definitely not a command to mystical or repetitious prayer. 

The power of the prayer of the heart is precisely that through it all that is on our mind becomes prayer. …when we learn to descend with our mind into our heart, then all those who have become part of our lives are led into the healing presence of God and touched by him in the center of our being. We are speaking here about a mystery for which words are inadequate. It is the mystery that the heart, which is the center of our being, is transformed by God into his own heart, a heart large enough to embrace the entire universe. Through prayer we can carry in our heart all human pain and sorrow, all conflicts and agonies, all torture and war, all hunger, loneliness, and misery, not because of some great psychological or emotional capacity, but because God’s heart has become one with ours.
 
There are seriously unbiblical beliefs, brought in as the conclusion and the point of the teaching on prayer. The man-centered focus of this teaching is clearly emphasized here. True spiritual transformation does not happen through our efforts, rituals or mystical or emotional experiences.

True transformation happens when a believer accepts Christ’s life in him, and yields his will to the will of God, following and being obedient to His commands. It is Christ’s righteousness that makes us acceptable to God. 

You thought I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you… (Psalm 50:21)