Breasts Quote by Frederick Buechner
“What's prayer? It's shooting shafts into the dark. What mark they strike, if any, who's to say? It's reaching for a hand you cannot touch. The silence is so fathomless that prayers like plummets vanish into the sea. You beg. You whimper. You load God down with empty praise. You tell him sins that he already knows full well. You seek to change his changeless will. Yet Godric prays the way he breathes, for else his heart would wither in his breast. Prayer is the wind that fills his sail. Else drift with witless tides. And sometimes, by God's grace, a prayer is heard.”
About This Quote
Source Book: The Book of Bebb, Volume 1, 1975
Prayer is portrayed as a desperate, often futile attempt to reach an unknowable divine, yet it can also be a vital, life‑sustaining practice when aligned with humility.
In simple terms: Prayer is a risky attempt to contact God, sometimes futile, sometimes essential.
Key Takeaway
Embrace humility in prayer; accept its mystery.
Themes
faith
despair
humility
communication
divine
Mood
melancholic
hopeful
contemplative
Type
philosophical
poetic
spiritual
When to use this quote
- personal crisis
- grief
- seeking meaning
- spiritual practice
- ritual
Key Concepts
existentialism
theology
human longing
Questions to Reflect On
- Do you pray to change God or to change yourself?
- How does humility alter the prayer experience?
A Different Perspective
Prayer may not change divine will, leading to frustration or disillusionment.
![“Everybody prays whether [you think] of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water…” quote by Frederick Buechner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a28/frederick-buechner-883_beautiful_everybody-prays-whether-you-think-of-it_2419045.jpg)
