In 2018, in the midst of my PhD coursework, I wrote this reflection. I recently revisited it and found it interesting to read during a time when many of us are in the process of coming out of pandemic isolation and beginning to see other people again on a regular basis. So, I post it here in the hope that you will also find it interesting and perhaps give you a moment to reflect.  I’m

Photo: Paul Gauguin, “Vision of the Sermon” (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/4940/vision-sermon-jacob-wrestling-angel …what would prayer be without this inward combat with the dumbness in us? This prayer that is so violent and at first uttered against our will— who can say if it is authentic or inauthentic? Jean-Louis Chrétien, “The Wounded Word” In his provocative essay “The Wounded Word: The Phenomenology of Prayer,” Jean-Louis Chrétien argues that prayer is the “religious phenomenon par excellence,”