Screwtape letter #4

This letter is on the topic of prayer. Screwtape writes that it is best to keep the Patient from praying at all. But, if the Patient does pray, Wormwood should see to it that he invents his own prayers. His prayers should be more like a general mood than an act of concentrated meditation. Wormwood should make the Patient focus on his own feeling instead of God. He should make the Patient want to feel better. Rather than praying for forgiveness or courage, then, the Patient will try to feel forgiven or feel brave. Humans do not know the Enemy’s full power, Screwtape writes, and so they can be tricked into thinking about and worshipping only images. They pray to the crucifix on their wall, not to the Enemy. Furthermore, people think that they want to feel fully exposed to the Enemy’s divine presence, but they are, in reality, afraid to feel it.