Prof. Dr. em. Josef Freitag: Danken

NOT WITHOUT YOU! The Keys of Prayer "Not without you" (pas sans toi) – with these three words, the French Jesuit Michel de Certeau (1925-1986) offers insight into what prayer means to him. A silent prayer during the Eucharist, sounding similar, appears several times in his writings: "Grant that I may never be separated from you." No life situation should be lived without the mystery that people call God. Those who pray, therefore, contradict the ideal of self-sufficiency and dare to confront the fact that they are not self-sufficient. A life with prayer does not seem to be the same as a life without prayer. The question remains, however, whom/what prayer changes: the praying individuals themselves in their relationship to circumstances? Or the circumstances themselves? And if something changes: who brings about what? Does the principle here apply: not without God, not without me/us? “Where those who pray are caught in the middle, there are different orientations, different standards, different forces at play than in the closed society of doers” (Klaus Hemmerle) – how is this to be understood? What does it mean, then, to perceive the different tones of everyday life, from major to minor, before God and to resonate with God – silently, thankfully, supplicating, praising, lamenting? Prayer as a composed life – what draws people to it, what holds them back? These questions concern not only the practice of prayer. The need for prayer is also a need for understanding! Since “head down for prayer” (Kurt Tucholsky) cannot apply, prayer also demands theological thought. This lecture series, in cooperation with the Guardini Foundation, attempts to address the spectrum of these questions.