Prayer

WHO SHOULD NOT PRAY
Bion was a Second Century B. C. Greek Philosopher who was born in what is now southern Russia. When he was a boy he was sold as a slave to a teacher of rhetoric who realized his talents and freed him. He studied at Athens and lived some time at the royal court of Macedon, where he became famous for his pithy sayings. Bion undertook a sea voyage on a vessel manned by a particularly dissolute and wicked crew. A storm blew up and the sailors began to pray loudly to the gods for deliverance. Bion advised them to keep quiet: “Rather let them not know where you are.” From The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, Ed. (Little, Brown, Boston, 1985). [Contrast with Jonah story]