{"id":8408,"date":"2011-03-16T08:08:57","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T14:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/16\/for-we-do-not-know-how-to-pray-for-japan\/"},"modified":"2011-03-16T09:20:36","modified_gmt":"2011-03-16T15:20:36","slug":"for-we-do-not-know-how-to-pray-for-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/16\/for-we-do-not-know-how-to-pray-for-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"“For we do not know how to pray” — for Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the nuclear catastrophe in Japan unfolds, on top of the twin catastrophes of last week’s earthquake and tsunami, we re-discover that we do not really know how to pray [not withstanding the “Litany” I posted earlier<\/a> on this blog].<\/p>\n

As I told my friend, who lives in Japan, I went to a retreat place yesterday, aptly named Mercy-By-The-Sea, to ponder and pray and try to be with Japan’s suffering. I ended up walking the shoreline at Mercy-By-The-Sea, cleaning it of trash, only able to repeat “mercy” “mercy” “mercy”. At some point, even someone used to creating\/writing prayers will be reduced to this basic groan for redemption. Nothing more, nothing less.<\/p>\n

But maybe it is precisely in this experience of being reduced to not knowing how to pray that the Holy Spirit Herself can, finally, intercede “with inexpressible groanings” (Rom 8:26).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the nuclear catastrophe in Japan unfolds, on top of the twin catastrophes of last week’s earthquake and tsunami, we re-discover that we do not really know how to pray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,187],"tags":[605,1167],"class_list":["post-8408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgical-spirituality","category-social-justice","tag-japan","tag-lament"],"yoast_head":"\n"For we do not know how to pray" - for Japan - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/16\/for-we-do-not-know-how-to-pray-for-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""For we do not know how to pray" - 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