The Least Important but Vital Spiritual Gift
Glossolalia in the City by Dalmo Mendonca
Part Two: Your Awakened Abilities Can Create the Future
“Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently - they're not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do!”
— Steve Jobs, business magnate
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
Are some gift abilities more critical in shaping the future than others?
Yes! According to Apostle Paul, prophecy is the most important spiritual ability available to everyone. What Paul calls "speaking in tongues" is what we call "prayer languages" and he considers it the least important. What does that mean?
In my last essay, I explored what Paul considers the most important gift, "prophecy," or what we call resonating prayer. Then he writes, "I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues" (I Cor 14:5). That's his blunt comparison of these two abilities. Why did he make that comparison? In their meetings in the Corinthian house church, the participants were often praying in tongues loudly and ecstatically, all at the same time. This created a noisy, wild situation that was strange and offensive to newcomers. But the Corinthian followers of Jesus loved the ecstatic state when they gathered, much like the one at Pentecost!
However, in correcting the Corinthian followers of Jesus, Paul does not dismiss prayer languages. Not at all. Paul was both a theologian and an ecstatic. So he encourages everyone to express themselves in prayer languages! In addition, this highly educated, intelligent man shares his own practice, saying, "I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you! (I Cor 14: 18). However, he wants all those loud, noisy prayer languages to happen when one is by themselves, not in the community gatherings. He grandly states, "In church, I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue (I Cor. 12:18-19).
Prayer Languages are vital even though they are not as important as other abilities.
Prayer languages are the least important, not because they are useless, far from it. But because they primarily serve as a way to express ourselves to God and only indirectly help others. The evaluation key for spiritual abilities is how much they help others. A prayer language may be essential for you to express yourself in a direct way from your heart to God without mind-limiting, recognizable words. While this makes it a valuable avenue for connecting to God, It serves as a by-product of blessing others because you are connected to God.
Today, we have a similar situation to the early church in that some Christian groups make prayer languages too important. They teach that a primary sign of spiritual awakening (called "baptism in the Spirit" for these groups) is that one prays in a prayer language. They press others to exercise their prayer language as "proof" of their awakening. This can be abusive.
What are prayer languages in the New Testament?
Let's look at this again while repeating some things I have written previously. Glossolalia continues to need our understanding. The Apostle Paul wrote much about prayer languages because explanation and correction were needed in his day. I am doing the same thing because it can seem confusing and also needs explanation and correction in our day.
The New Testament translators render the Greek glōssais lalo as “speaking in tongues” or other kinds of languages. This gives rise to the modern term for it — (glossolalia from Greek glōssa, meaning tongue or language, and lalia, meaning talking). There are thirty-five references to glossolalia, or what is commonly called "speaking in tongues" in the New Testament. I think a more accurate, interpretative translation of glossolalia is "prayer languages."
The most common misunderstanding of a prayer language is that it is a known language. This comes from the report at Pentecost that "each one heard them speaking in the native language of each" (Acts 2:6). I understand that this, whatever it was, was a phenomenon of hearing from the listeners, not of speaking from the followers of Jesus.
Paul writes of the "interpretation" of a prayer language because he thought of it as an actual language. Therefore, when someone publicly spoke in a prayer language, it was thought the next speaker was given an interpretation of that prayer language in the language of the people present. I believe a prayer language is best understood as not anything that can be translated into one's native language. It is a spiritual language beyond ordinary language. Therefore, I think what was offered was more prophecy-inspired and not an interpreted prayer language.
Glossolalia is not a known language, but praying in an unknown form that is not language in the usual sense. Rather, it is speaking or singing non-conceptual sounds of the heart.
In addition, because of the dogmatic insistence by some that this phenomenon is "proof" of spirit in our lives, much bickering and confusion has resulted. Most Christians have heard about those people who "speak in tongues." This is often wrongly associated with fanaticism and uneducated, primitive behavior. Many do not understand its significance or meaning, including some of those who practice it. Let me, hopefully, untangle it some more here.
A prayer language serves as a non-conceptual language of devotion.
When we pray in this way, we express our heart-focused, devotional relationship with God through a mystical language that is uniquely ours. In my experience, everyone's prayer language is distinctively theirs, different from everyone else's. It is not copied but emerges from one's own inner being in a creative flow.
In this way, we can whisper a lover's sweet nothings to Abba (Father/Daddy), Imma (Mother/Momma), Jesus, Mary, Sophia, and other beloved spiritual beings. It is the language of love in the mystical realm and a way to enter into a meditative state with ease.
This way of praying never becomes culture-bound or outdated because its fundamental purpose is not to communicate but to participate in the presence of God.
At Pentecost, instead of spending 20 years meditating in a cave to wake up, the assembled followers of Jesus had an influx of spirit-breath-consciousness that moved them to an immediate awakening of transcendence. They erupted into overflowing joy and bliss expressed in ecstatic movement and glossolalia.
These prayer languages transcend language and embody a non-conceptual language or mantra. Rather than a mantra one must remember or conceptualize, a prayer language requires no memory or conceptualization.
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. ”
A prayer language is praying from the beginning edge of the cloud of unknowing. These sounds serve as "words" without conceptual meaning, bypassing the mind and speech centers.
In one sense, it is a golden mantra that uniquely emerges from within a person. It is all their own. Its restoration from the early church is one of the primary benefits of the modern charismatic movement. Despite its mishandling in some of these expressions, we can keep the baby while throwing out the abusive and exclusionary bathwater.
What Richard Rohr shared with Pope Frances
Some time ago, one of our ICN heroes, Richard Rohr, visited Pope Francis in Rome. Richard said, "Sitting across from each other, I shared with him about what God has done in my life – from my beginning as a charismatic, learning the healing power of heart-based devotional prayer. . ." That's code for glossolalia.
Richard so profoundly embraced the "healing power of heart-based devotional prayer" he found in the charismatic movement that it was one of the first things he shared about his spiritual journey with the Pope! He eventually moved from what he calls, using Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner's term, the "noisy mysticism" of the Pentecostals and Charismatics. He turned to the "quiet mysticism" of contemplative prayer.
Communal Mysticism Transmitting to the World by Paul Fryer
Beyond Noisy and Quiet Mysticism is Relational Mysticism
I find that there is a third version of mystical heart-based devotional prayer beyond "noisy" and "quiet." I call it "relational mysticism." This is what we practice in ICN. This is when our individual journey of mystical devotion and communion with God finds its most dynamic expression in the collective of WeSpace and ICN.
We express this inwardly through mystical prayer we call "transmission" as we express gratitude and love to God, guides, and one another in both recognizable words and in a prayer language. We express it outwardly in Resonating Prayer and in sharing the words, images, visions, and sensations that emerge while in mystical, meditative consciousness.
Roman Catholic scholar Kilian McDonnell argues that "one might think of Pentecostalism simply as a prayer movement." One can pray in their prayer language noisily, quietly, or even silently, praying inwardly. In ICN's relational mysticism, while gathering with others, some of us may commune with God silently in our prayer language and when the group is transmitting to one another.
Three times when it can be helpful to speak a prayer language out loud with others
I find three exceptions to not speaking out loud with one's prayer language with others. Each is a form of spiritual transmission that we can offer in the right conditions and settings.
Some have a special gift of singing in their prayer language that others recognize as creating a field of beautiful energy and depth in a group.
Another exception is when someone is asked to do so because they have a gift of healing and transmission that is amplified when they pray softly in their prayer language. I have prayed this way for hundreds of people individually in many places around the country and at my church for many years. In the past, when I did so in these person-to-person settings, people were often overcome with so much spiritual energy that their outward circuits shut down, and they rested on the floor in an altered state of consciousness from a few minutes to an hour or so.
A third exception is occasionally when a group is moved to praise God or pray for another in prayer languages. This can be an unusually powerful time. At our recent in-person leaders retreat in Kansas City, we had just such an experience, with fifteen of us praying for one another, many in their prayer language.
Scientific Research
BRAIN SCAN:
Left: Language centers while singing.
Right: Language centers are less active while using prayer language.
Dr. Andrew Newberg and neuroscientific researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that activity in the language centers of the speakers' brains decreased during glossolalia. Their lips were moving, and sound was being generated, but the actual language centers of the brain were not as active as usual. To me, this shows that our prayer language comes from the heart, not the mind.
How I discovered my prayer language
Some Christians today spontaneously begin to speak to God in their prayer language while alone. Or, as at Pentecost, they may "catch" it from the presence of others singing or praying in prayer languages. I waited around for several years for that to happen to me. But since, back then, I was driving with my emotional brakes on, I was not a candidate for spontaneity!
I finally realized that I could begin the practice by myself. I decided to pray out loud while allowing my intuition to give me any "non-word words," excluding words I already knew in English, Latin, Hebrew, and Greek.
However, I must admit that this whole thing seemed quite embarrassing. I had spent twenty years in school mastering clear and meaningful speech. I was a professional teacher and worked at being as articulate as possible. Now I was going to do something silly — talk in nonsense syllables and call it prayer! My ego was skeptical, to say the least. Here was a 30-year-old, highly educated man making child-like baby talk.
Then I remembered Jesus saying something about becoming a little child to really get our
spiritual mojo going (Matt 18:3-4). Maybe this was my entrance into child-likeness!
Being a Child is Messy!
I decided I could press past my embarrassment if I was alone. I went to my car, rolled up the windows, and determined to give it a go. I decided to tell God how much I loved her/him/them, using words and syllables I did not recognize as a language. I continued my child-like utterances, staying out of my mind until I got it! Somehow, this expressing myself in non-words to God was a doorway into letting go of my ordinary mind and moving into another state of consciousness! Later, I learned to call it the beginning of a subtle, mystical state. Now it is a normal part of my meditative prayer life.
Once again, there is no requirement that anyone exercise a prayer language. If this resonates with you, try it. If not, find other practices that open you to higher consciousness and that let you express it in a satisfying way.
A Prayer Language Helps Us Enter the Mystical Dimensions of the Spiritual Path
Next week, we begin exploring many other spiritual gift abilities.
Reflection
Have you found a prayer language to be helpful?
What was most helpful in exploring prayer languages to you in the essay?
Do you have any remaining questions about this prayer practice?