Commentary on the Gospel of
Power of Prayer
Why couldn’t the disciples cure the boy? Jesus is definitive in his answer: “Only prayer can drive out this kind, nothing else.” It means that Jesus drove out the demon by the power of his prayer. The disciples still had a long way to go! Alfred Tennyson places these thoughts on prayer on the lips of King Arthur in his conversation with Sir Bedivere, in his poem “The Passing of Arthur” from Idylls of the King:
“. . . More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.”
