“With the dignity, even
austerity of the Prayer Book there goes also a basic simplicity which is not
affected by the richness of its language. Its prayers are the expression of a
filial relationship between a child and his father—a weak, sinful and erring
child, a Father of infinite majesty and power, but still a child and a
father. Their language is the direct
address of a person talking with a person.
Because of this view, which has been learned from the Bible, Anglican
writers have little to say about complicated techniques of devotion; they are
content to accept prayer as a natural activity of the soul, as ordinary in its
way as converse between human beings.
There must of course be a keen awareness of the overwhelming greatness
of the Being who is approached, and a corresponding sense of the unworthiness
of the one who is drawing near. So vast
a difference in the capacities of the two may lead to seeming disappointments,
to hesitations and doubts s a man is led through ways which he is incapable of
understanding at the time, but love, faith, and perseverance will prove the
unfailing goodness of God toward us in the end.”
C. J. Stranks, Anglican Devotion, 276-7
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