“The Mothers” by Brit Bennett (post 6): The Mothers are members of a real life church, Upper Room Chapel, that most book reviews don’t explain

I have just begun Brit Bennett’s first novel, each chapter of which begins with the thoughts of a women’s group of the community’s church, Upper Room Chapel. I didn’t pay attention to this until their discussion at the beginning of Chapter 3, involving “intercessory prayer,” which, I did not know, is one of the four types of prayer recognized in Christianity. My attention was particularly peeked by the sentence, “Then you have to slip into their body.” I don’t know if this means you have to be empathetic or you have to become someone else, which sounds like switching personalities:

“We don’t think of ourselves as ‘prayer warriors.’ A man must have come up with that term. But prayer is more delicate than battle, especially intercessory prayer. More than just a notion, taking up the burdens of someone else, often someone you don’t even know. You close your eyes and listen to a request. Then you have to slip inside their body…If you don’t become them, even for a second, a prayer is nothing but words” (1, p. 38).

Since I am unfamiliar with the Upper Room Chapel church and with prayer in Christian theology, I looked up related links (2-6). Maybe you can understand this aspect of Brit Bennett’s first novel. I don’t see it discussed in book reviews, and I don’t understand why this is in the novel or what it means. Maybe you do.

1. Brit Bennett. The Mothers. New York, Riverhead Books, 2016.

2. Upper Room Chapel https://upperroomchapel.com/

3. The Upper Room https://www.upperroom.org/

4. Prayer Warrior https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_warrior

5. Intercession. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercession#:~:text=Intercession%20or%20intercessory%20prayer%20is,alongside%20adoration%2C%20confession%20and%20thanksgiving.

6. Prayer in the Catholic Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_in_the_Catholic_Church

September 7, 2020: I didn't note anything related to multiple personality in the rest of the novel.