Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer

by Tyler Staton

In short, if you want to play jazz, you’ve got to learn the sheet music first. And if you want to pray with passion, spontaneity, and freedom, you’ve got to learn the sheet music. On his knees in Gethsemane, sweating bloody drops of dread and anxiety, Jesus began to pray, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”30 It strikes me that Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 26 is a mirror image of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”31 The words that involuntarily spilled forth from his mouth in that moment of anguish bear a striking resemblance to the way he taught his disciples to pray years earlier.