Greetings from Columbus, Ohio, where I just gave a talk near the beautiful capital.
Sometimes we need a little encouragement and hope. These 14 insights I gathered from thinkers, writers, and Jewish wisdom have helped guide many throughout the centuries. Click here to get them.
14 Prayer Quotes for Encouragement and Inspiration
14 Prayer Quotes for Encouragement and Inspiration for Thursday, April 26, 2018
We all pray. Prayer does not just consist of words, though these prayer quotes are words. We pray with our legs, our arms, and our hearts.
Prayer Quotes I: God is Closer Than We Imagine
1. In prayer we speak to a presence vaster than the unfathomable universe, yet closer to us than we are to ourselves: the God beyond, who is also the Voice within. Jonathan Sacks2: Prayer is to the soul what food is to the body. Judah HaLevi
3: The true journey of discovery does not consist of searching for new landscapes, but in having ‘new eyes’. Marcel Proust
Prayer Quotes II: Prayer Brings Happiness
4: Beware of anything that threatens to take away your joy in the name of religion. In the end it will probably take you away from God as well. Arthur Green
5: The most beautiful and deepest experience a person can have is the sense of the mysterious. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. Albert Einstein
6: The verb “to pray” in Hebrew is reflexive. Prayer is about exposing and facing up to depths of self, asking difficult questions and trying to answer them, pondering the meaning of God’s teachings for one’s life. Arnold Eisen
Prayer Quotes III: The Soul
7: In my heart I will build a sanctuary
To God’s glorious splendour,
And in the sanctuary I will raise an altar To the radiance of His majesty.
As fire I will take
The fire of the Binding,
And as a sacrifice I will offer Him My undivided soul. Rabbi Eliezer Azikri 8: All beings long for the very source of their origin. Every plant, every grain of sand, every clod of earth, small creatures and great, the heavens and the angels, every substance and its particles – all of them are longing, yearning, panting to attain the state of holy perfection.
Human beings suffer constantly from this homesickness of the soul, and it is in prayer that we cure it. When praying, we feel at one with the whole creation, and raise it to the very source of blessing and life. Rav Abraham Kook
9. Prayer without intention is no prayer at all. He who has prayed without intention ought to pray once more. He whose thoughts are wandering or occupied with other things need not pray until he has recovered his mental composure.
Hence, on returning from a journey, or if one is weary or distressed, it is forbidden to pray until his mind is composed The sages said that upon returning from a journey, one should wait three days until he is rested and his mind is calm, then he prays.” Moses Maimonides
Prayer Quotes IV: The Heart
10. Prayer is not a service of the lips; it is worship of the heart. Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf
11. My grandfather, whom I often watched pray in the morning, once told me that before he can pray, he opens the shades to the house. This way, there is no separation between himself and the Creator. Aharon Applefeld, Israeli writer
12. Prayer is like the light from a burning glass in which all the rays that emanate from the soul are gathered to a focus. Abraham Joshua Heschel
13. Prayer must be understood as something radically unique and unassociated with any other type of activity. It is the participation in the miracle and mystery of God. Rabbi David Posner
Everyone Prays
14. Prayer doesn’t have to be a matter of a month-long retreat or even an hour of meditation. Prayer is a conversation with God while driving to work or awaiting an appointment or before interacting with a client.
Don’t think for a minute that he is glaring at you from a distance with crossed arms and a scowl, waiting for you to get your prayer life together. It’s just the opposite. God is ready and waiting for us. Anonymous
What Is Prayer for You?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rabbi Evan Moffic
I show the way Jewish wisdom make our lives richer and happier. In particular, I help Jews appreciate their heritage and Christians uncover the Jewish roots of their faith. Get my FREE Jewish holidays cheat sheet by signing up here!
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With warmest wishes, Rabbi Evan
Rabbi Evan Moffic
Rabbi Evan Moffic
Congregation Solel
1301 Clavey Road
Highland Park, Illinois 60035, United States
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