Epiphanic Prayer

Abstract

Epiphanies are not things of the past. Epiphanies of various sorts are experienced in today’s world, as we see in this part of the book. In this chapter, we consider prayer as the occasion and means of epiphanic experience. Prayer is both an ancient and contemporary religious practice well established in various religious traditions. In the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, prayer is prayer to God, and may be participatory in the setting of a religious service or may be private. Prayers in these traditions may be petitionary or they may give thanks or be in praise of God. Private prayer in particular can take a central place in the religious lives of believers. Prayer is not limited to these monotheistic traditions. There may be Buddhist prayers offered to bodhisattvas, while there are prayers in the Vodou religion and in other religious traditions. It is arguable that all prayer, as a communication with God or the divine, is epiphanic. In this chapter, we consider the general epiphanic character of prayer in the understanding of St. Francis de Sales and how epiphanic prayer in the religious sensibility exhibited by de Sales is connected to epiphanic guidance, judgment, and love. Furthermore, we consider how the epiphanic dimension of prayer presented by St. Francis de Sales, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Ávila, and Julian of Norwich apply to contemporary prayer.