Prayer and Magic

'The difference between prayer and magic is an attitude towards the future. If theology has forgotten it, Einstein reminds us that there are many futures. Prayer, especially intercessory prayer, requires opening to this possibility of many futures. Magic limits us to only one. Magic tries to exert total short-term control over a narrow aspect of life, heedless of the long-term consequences or the ripple effects.

In our desperation to pray for a loved one in crisis or our own needs and desires, we often feel strongly what the best outcome should be, and we frame our prayers (and sometimes fill them with bribes) towards this end. These exercises are useful only if they help us to examine and acknowledge what we think and feel. At best, our knowledge and understanding of the larger picture, much less the depth of the heart of the person for whom we are praying, is fragmentary and provisional. In reality it is impossible for us to know what will allow for the highest good, and unless our prayer is underpinned and ringed about with "thy will be done" it is no better than magic.

By contrast, true prayer tries to gather what needs attention and let go of it in the love of God'.

From Maggie Ross, Writing the Icon of the Heart: In Silence Beholding (Oxford: The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2011), p.39.