Letter to The Editor - Do Not Use Empty Repetitions

to THE AGE
     There may be more to prayer than rationalist critic Ian Robinson understands (28/9). The ‘controlled scientific study’ he relies on may be methodologically inappropriate, hence the old saying that ‘you cannot knit a cake.’
     Most prayers are not petitions. They are vehicles of potential transformation in a person. Tradition tells us that the art of prayer, of entering into touch with a higher level of being, needs to be learned. It is said that to pray a person must feel his nothingness in comparison with the divine. This is why Jesus said: ‘In praying, do not use empty repetitions.’
NJ, Belgrave, Vic