Struggle of Prayer

The Wisdom Class is almost finished reading Karen Armstrong's The Case for God. Yesterday we discussed a story related there about the Holocaust, which is staying with me:

"Another Auschwitz story. . . . Even in the camps, some of the inmates continued to study the Torah and to observe the festivals, not in the hope of placating an angry deity but because they found, by experience, that these rituals helped them to endure the horror.

"One day a group of Jews decided to put God on trial. In the face of such inconceivable suffering, they found the conventional arguments utterly unconvincing. If God was omnipotent, he could have prevented the Shoah; if he could not stop it, he was impotent; and if he could have stopped it but chose not to, he was a monster. They condemned God to death. The presiding rabbi announced the verdict, then went on calmly to announce that it was time for the evening prayer.

"Ideas about God come and go, but prayer, the struggle to find meaning even in the darkest circumstances, must continue."

Armstrong, Karen. The Case for God. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. 278.

I cannot explain or understand the suffering and pain in the world. Prayer is my answer to keep me realizing/knowing that God undergirds it all, somehow, some way. Prayer, worship, community support and remind of the Love that connects us all. It is my task to continue, despite suffering, disillusionment, ennui.