Watching and Praying:
Engaging the News & Social Media
as a “Prayer Walk”
Prayer walking is a type of intercessory prayer that involves walking to or near a particular place while praying. As you prayer walk, your prayers extend beyond your own concerns, focusing directly on the needs of others and opening yourself to see them with God’s eyes and heart. Prayer walks are a means of asking God to give you a heart for your neighborhood, city and land. It gives you a concrete means of doing something for the well-being of your town as you ask the Holy Spirit to pray through you as you observe the world around you.
A new issue of Ruminations (a seasonal/quarterly periodical, here at Zoe-Life) is coming soon—focused on the journey which is prayer… and the many forms it can take.
Early on in the issue, I saw the need to acknowledge, once again, spiritual types (cf., In Spiritual Formation, One Size Does Not Fit All!)—and how a regard for different styles accounts for a whole spectrum of legitimate prayer practices. There are Brevaries/Prayer Guides, for example, for Head Types. There’s music for Heart Types. There’s Centering Prayer for Mystics.
“But, what about the “Socail Justice/Action” Types?,” I asked. “Do I have anything to commend to them—something, say, along the lines of a ‘prayer walk’?”
And then, I realized I have been about a prayer walk of sorts for several years now: intentionally and deliberately engaging news headlines and my social media feeds–in and with a spirit of real prayer. At a time when many are fasting from media (and there is a time and a place for that, I assure you), I have purposefully and consciously engaged both as a forum for prayer.
Sometimes, a good and positive story breaks through—provoking a sense of praise and “hallelujah!” Steve Hartman and David Begnaud (both at CBS) do a good job of consistently delivering such moments.
Mostly, though, especially given the alarmist, “breaking news” alignment of the media and our culture, my “prayer walks” through my social media neighborhood makes for more of a litany akin to the “prayers of the people”—with the constant response, “Lord, have mercy”:
- Incivility, extremism, division, name-calling, conspiracy theories abound…
“Lord, have mercy.” - Genocide and war in Ukraine and Gaza (and other places that do not command the camera’s eye)…
“Lord, have mercy.” - The trafficking and objectification and degradation of human beings that strips them of their dignity and personhood and innocence…
“Lord, have mercy.” - Expressions of countless addictions [including control itself] which have us believing we humans can be in control of life, living, security, and fulfillment…
“Lord, have mercy.” - Natural disasters devastating communities…
“Lord, have mercy.” - The blurring of lines between the Church/Gospel and State…
“Lord, have mercy.” - Blatant expressions of the “Seven Deadly Sins” (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth)…
“Lord, have mercy.” - And, even now, as I write, news of another horrific school shooting in Minneapolis spays across my screen…
“Lord, have mercy!”
Of course, the litany is incomplete. And, to be sure, “social justice” types would suggest that “prayer walks” like this are only the beginning. Borrowing from the title of the book which Millard Fuller would write about his founding of and vision for Habitat for Humanity, Theology of the Hammer, those subscribing to the social justice/action style would argue for “prayer amidst the hammering.” Theirs is the clear reminder that prayer is not just words or thoughts or feelings alone. No, our active responses every bit as much prayer!
The current discussion suffices, though, in making the point that, if prayer is inclusive of all spiritual types – if it is, in fact, a matter of mind, heart, soul, and strength; then, it ought to be much, much more than an individual enterprise marked by eyes closed, hands clasped, and heads bowed.
A Prayer Before Reading the News**
(by Rabbi Irwin Keller)
My God, the soul you have placed in me
is pure and vulnerable.
I am afraid that looking
at today’s news will be painful.
Encircle me in a robe of light
so that I can witness
the wounds of the world
without being wounded myself.
Let me learn what I need to know
in order to be of my greatest use,
without being overwhelmed by despair.
I feel your protective light now
as I open myself
to the world’s suffering
and the world’s joys.
Amen.
**this prayer was found in the post,
“On Praying the News in Times of Danger and Darkness,”
at Rev. Matthew Fox’s website, Daily Meditations
No, given the tensions/polarities that necessarily fill life and surround spirituality and our Faith, prayer equally demands heads raised and eyes opened. It demands the breaking of hard hearts and soft wills. And, it demands free and open hands—capable of reaching out and serving serve a broken and hurting world. Short of such awareness, brokenness and freedom, our prayers might be sweet and soothing. And, yes, such pleasures/comforts can be definite outcomes of some moments of prayer. But, on their own (embraced as the primary goal of prayer), they hardly contribute to the real and full end of prayer which is full Christlikeness.