Mark S. Sisk
Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of New York

Mark S. Sisk

Sisk, ordained in 1967, has been Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, one of the Episcopal Church’s largest dioceses with over 200 congregations, since 2001.

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Prayer is the Soul's Response To God's Movement

Prayer is the soul’s response, that is to say the person’s inner response, to God’s movement at the center of one’s own being.

I do pray, which is to say I attempt to respond to God by allowing God’s Spirit to work within me, conforming me to the Divine will. It is not so much a matter of what I do; it is rather a matter of what God does, in each and all of us.

In my response to God’s invitation, it is my hope that my will be shaped to reflect, God’s will. That is to say it is my hope that through prayer I will be equipped to see God’s presence in the world. I will come to see God in every one and in every place.

It is my hope that God praying in me will bring me that place where I will see the good that is now hidden from me; that I will work for the good of others that God wills for them. It is, as well, my faith that prayer will help me to see that which is evil cloaked in good. It is my belief that the river of prayer which sustains me will guide me to work for the peace and the wholeness of society and creation with a fire burning with God’s own passion.

By Mark S. Sisk  |  February 3, 2007; 11:30 AM ET Save & Share:  Send E-mail   Facebook   Twitter   Digg   Yahoo Buzz   Del.icio.us   StumbleUpon   Technorati  
Previous: Yes I Pray | Next: Prayer: A Life-Changing Experience

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----Prayer is the Soul's Response To God's Movement----

Bowel movement?

Posted by: Anonymous | February 5, 2007 12:49 PM
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Hello Dolores, I would offer you the thought that prayer does change things, for prayer changes us.

It's a little like like love. What person, experience or situation can you imagine that love does not change?

Some things that are very real that cannot be explained, they can just be experienced.

Best wishes to you...

Posted by: Rev. Laina Wod Casillas | February 5, 2007 2:07 AM
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Prayer like all worship is an effort to gain leverage over God to get your non-existent soul into the non-existant after life. It is a little 'look at me' ritual. "Look at me God look at how earnestly I am praying. Let me into heaven".

Your faith is real but the object of your prayer and worship is not. God does not speak to you. The voices in your head are your normal human duality. They are you. It is dangerous to believe mythic Gods are sending you instructions since the human mind can throw all kinds of random horror. How many christian divorced Dad's kill their children and themselves because of God's prayer induced endorsements.

I love DW's thoughts. If God doesn't answer your prayer it is your fault and if he does ... well that proves that there is a God". God can't lose than can she?

Posted by: Brett allen | February 4, 2007 10:25 PM
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No human father always says yes to his children, neither does he always say no. It is all according to his purpose for their own well being, for something they need to learn or perhaps he may not say yes or no at all, due to their indifference.

Does the unanswered prayer mean its God's fault?

I would say no to that question, for the mere fact that mankind as a whole has been indifferent to the Creator God since Eden.

Posted by: DW | February 4, 2007 9:43 PM
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I don't pray - don't know how to - don't know what to pray to or for. Just try to do the right thing. Maybe I pray to myself because I often hope that I will have the wisdom to do the right thing.

A few years ago, I heard a reporter ask President Bush if he prays to God to help him win the war ... or a question to that effect.

Bush replied words to the effect of "I pray to God for the wisdom to do the right thing." I thought that was a good answer.

Obviously, it hasn't worked. I can just imagine God up there listening to his prayer and saying to herself, "How do I give this guy wisdom to rescue himself from a foolish decision?"

Does the unanswered prayer mean it's God's fault?

I think both Lovie and Dungy are praying for victory. If you were God, whom would you pick and what's the spread in heaven?

Posted by: Anon | February 4, 2007 2:37 PM
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Prayer does not change the world, actions do. No the killing actions that started with Cain and Abel, but Equal Sharing of the resources of the Earth with all life.

We now have enough pollution to kill the planet, with trash dumps, oil spills and nuclear waste on land and sea, to cause the Judgement Day Fire. Will prayer or action change this.

We have enough nuclear bombs on land and sea to blow up our planet. Will prayer or action change this.

God said Thou Shalt Not Kill. Jesus said Turn The Other Cheek. Who follows God and Jesus. Pray will not change killing, following God and Jesus with action will.

God and Jesus are due to return in the Last Days of Life on Earth. We have the Last Days Judgement Day Fire set up. They will return before this happens.

It is time to give up praying and start the action to clean up our planet, and give all people a place to live, food to eat and clothes to wear before our company from space arrives.
This also takes Action, not prayer.

Peace.

Posted by: Dolores Lear | February 4, 2007 2:05 PM
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Nice thought Norrie but they, Episcopals have the threat of hell hanging over their heads like a guillotine ready to drop and take their heads off. It's an odds on favorite that they will become Buddhists once the fact that the Bible is a hoax and the primary hoax of the Bible is hell gets through to them.

Remove hell, remove the terror and remove the need to pray to supernatural beings for relief. Maybe this explains how the Japanese are so far ahead of us technologically and the Chinese are breathing down our necks. Jesus freaks aren't known for being great scientists are they?

Are we being evangelized to prepare us for war? That's an ameteure's approach to keeping pace with the enlightened peoples of the world.

Posted by: BGone | February 3, 2007 6:40 PM
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Bishop Sisk,

The Episcopal panelists of On Faith are among the most enlightened of all the panelists, and I have the highest regard for all of you.

It seems to me, though, that you are all either crypto-Buddhists, or only maintaining one degree of separation from Buddhism.

If you would move from Episcopalianism to Buddhism, your lives might well improve. Your spiritual pursuits would continue essentially unchanged. Prayer time would become meditation time.

You would probably proceed more quickly on the path to enlightenment. You would no longer be frustrated by the mental tangles of trying to figure out the meaning, if any exists, of the three-letter word with no referent ["God"].

You would enjoy a new freedom from many of the things that now confuse or confound you.
Buddhism is the most compassionate of all belief systems, more so by far than Christianity.

I wish you good luck and enlightenment as soon as may be.

Posted by: Norrie Hoyt | February 2, 2007 11:58 PM
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Again, a goofy fellow. Let's do the "Zeus" thing and see what happens:

Mark says:

"I do pray, which is to say I attempt to respond to Zeus by allowing Zeus’s Spirit to work within me, conforming me to the Divine will. It is not so much a matter of what I do; it is rather a matter of what Zeus does, in each and all of us."

Yeah, right.

Posted by: Bob | February 1, 2007 8:38 PM
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