Sunday, August 30, 2015

#BlogElul 16: Pray

I seem to recall that one of my blogger friends once wrote a post about the ways that prayer was like exercise. When I Goggled a few different things to try to locate the post, all I came up with was a Huffington Post article by Michael Rossmann, SJ, entitled Everything I Know About Prayer I Relearned in Spin Class.

Not what I was looking for....

Nonetheless, what I remember about the original post is that it loosely compared prayer and exercise, effectively making the case that they are similar in a few key ways:
  1. Both are best done on a regular basis.
  2. Both take practice in order to become proficient.
  3. The more you do them, the easier and more fulfilling they become.
As a regular worshiper, I agree. Having said that, though, I wonder what it is about the High Holidays that prompts others to get up off the couch to do something that must feel like running a marathon without having trained for it.

Inspired by Ima on (and off) the Bima,this #BlogElul post is one in a series marking the days of the Hebrew month of Elul, which precedes the Jewish High Holidays and traditionally serves as a time of reflection and spiritual preparation for the new year.