Prayer in Congregation

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.

James 5:16, The Message

"The congregation is a place where I'm gradually learning that prayer is not conditioned or authenticated by my feelings. Nothing is more devastating to prayer than when I begin to evaluate prayer by my feelings, and think that in order to pray I have to have a certain sense, a certain spiritual attentiveness or peace or, on the other side, anguish.

That's virtually impossible to learn by yourself. But if I'm in a congregation, I learn over and over again that prayer will go on whether I feel like it or not, or even if I sleep through the whole thing."

The Contemplative Pastor

"Prayer in Congregation," God's Message for Each Day by Eugene Peterson.