Karl Rahner’s Prayer

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My friend Sister Ginny, a Benedictine nun, sent me this prayer composed by the great Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. I think it is worth sharing, worth meditating upon, and most of all, worth praying.

O God, whenever I think of Your Infinity, I am racked with anxiety, wondering how You are disposed to me. You must adapt Your word to my smallness, so that it can enter into this tiny dwelling of my finiteness—the only dwelling in which I can live—without destroying it. If you should speak such an “abbreviated ” word, which would not say everything but only something simple which I could grasp, then I could breathe freely again. You must make your own some human word, for that is the only kind I can comprehend. Don’t tell me everything that You are; don’t tell me of Your infinity—just say that You love me, just tell me of Your Goodness.

Beautiful.

It’s significant that this prayer was composed by a brilliant German theologian.

You must adapt Your word to my smallness…make your own some human word…

Of course, this prayer is answered in the Incarnation—the Word made flesh and adapted to our smallness telling us of the love and goodness of God.

Amen.

BZ

(The painting is Incarnation by Edward Longo)