“Wittgenstein once wrote: ‘I think I summed up my attitude to philosophy when I said: philosophy ought really to be written only as a poetic composition.’ His admiration for (poetry), I think, gives us a clue as to what he had in mind. If philosophical understanding is to be conveyed, then it cannot be conveyed in the same way that scientific knowledge is conveyed—i.e. stated directly in literal language—it must be through something more analogous to poetry. The philosopher has to bear in mind always that what he or she really wants to say cannot be said, and , therefore, it has to be conveyed another way: it has to be show. In this way, as Wittgenstein out it…the unutterable will be, unutterably contained in what has been uttered.” (Ray Monk, How to Read Wittgenstein)

What Wittgenstein says holds for philosophy is even a starker and greater challenge for faith. Religion operates in the realm of the unutterable, unknowable, unsayable—“No one can see my face and live…” Who can pronounce God’s name? What is indicated by one of God’s names—“Ein Sof” (the infinite)?

Liturgy is the realm where we struggle to give voice to the unsayable—to reach the unknowable through poetry, music, drama, and movement.

We err greatly when we see prayer as a rational activity. Prayer is a struggle because it seeks to engage the realm that upon which Wittgenstein reflected philosophically. The struggle of prayer is the struggle to understand ourselves, our place in the world and the God who we affirm can somehow make sense of it all.