“The gift of sharing in the intercessions of Christ is that when we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit makes intercession for us. Whatever else our faith is, it is a response to a Response already made for us and continually being made for us in Christ, the pioneer of our faith.”
James Torrance, Worship, Community and the triune God of Grace, p.18
“Jesus Christ is the true leader of our worship, and if we take our eyes off him we fall back on ourselves, with a false confidence in the flesh, in what we do, in a religion which can never take away sins or lead us into true communion with God.”
James Torrance, Worship, Community and the triune God of Grace, p.107
We can only pray ‘in the name of Christ’ because Christ has already, in our name, offered up our desires to God and continues to offer them. In our name, he lived a life agreeable to the will of God, in our name vicariously confessed our sins and submitted to the verdict of guilty for us, and in our name gave thanks to God. We pray ‘in the name of Christ’, because of what Christ has done and is doing today in our name, on our behalf.
James Torrance, Worship, Community and the triune God of Grace, p. 35
“If we go to confession, it is not to plead for forgiveness from God. It is to thank him for it… When God forgives our sins, he is not changing his mind about us. He is changing our minds about him. He does not change, his mind is never anything but loving: he is love.” Herbert McCabe, God, Christ and Us, p.16.
“Prayer is not a narrowly private activity; it is about your belonging in the body of Christ, and in the family of humanity. If you understand what is going on when you pray, then the world changes. And if in prayer you are gradually becoming attuned to the will and purpose of God, then the divine power that comes into you is bound to finds its outlet in this healing of relations. That is not to say that you pray in order to be a nicer person, or so that justice and reconciliation will happen. You pray because Christ is in you. And if that is really happening, then the sort of things you can expect to see developing around you are justice and reconciliation.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian, p.73
“…the essence of prayer as the New Testament presents it is to let Jesus pray in you and take you into the very heart of God the Father. Just as Jesus empties himself out of love for us, we, in return, empty ourselves. We push away the selfish desires and the limiting images that crowd into our heads. We make room, we empty our minds and hearts, so that the love of God can fill them. So our prayer is that we may be made one with the will and the action of Jesus. And that means, says Origen, that when we pray and join in his activity we are doing a priestly thing, bringing the pains and needs of earth into the heart of God.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian, p.67
“… in a nutshell, [prayer is] letting Jesus pray in you, and beginning that lengthy and often very tough process by which our selfish thoughts and ideals and hopes are gradually aligned with his eternal action; just as, in his own earthly life, his human fears and hopes and desires and emotions are put into the context of his love for the Father, woven into his eternal relation with the Father – even in that moment of supreme pain and mental agony that he endures the night before his death.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian, p.63
“Christian baptism restores a human identity that has been forgotten or overlaid. It takes us to where Christ Jesus is. It takes us therefore into closer neighbourhood with a dark and fallen world, and it takes us into closer neighbourhood with others invited there.
The baptised life is characterised by solidarity with those in need, and sharing with all others who believe; and by a prayerfulness that keeps going, even when things look difficult and unpromising and unrewarding, simply because we can’t stop the urge to pray. Something keeps coming alive in us, never mind the results.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian, p11f
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“The prayer of the baptised is a growing and moving into the prayer of Jesus himself and therefore it is a prayer that may be difficult and mysterious. It will not always be cheerful and clear, it may not always feel as though it’s going to be answered. Christians do not pray to get what they ask for in any simple sense – you may have noticed that this can’t be taken for granted! Rather, Christians pray because they have to, because the Spirit is surging up inside them.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian, p.8f
“At the central moment, just before we receive the bread and wine, we pray the prayer of Jesus: we say, “Our Father…” – and that is a great and significant moment, not just a bit of muttered devotion before we start on our way to the altar, but one of the supreme transitions in the drama of the entire service. For when we pray the prayer of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in us and at work in us. We are affirming that in this act of worship the Holy Spirit is speaking Jesus’ words in us, praying ‘Abba, Father’, just as Jesus did and does.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian, p.56