Now I’m not for a moment suggesting that magic is real and that spells work. But traditionally, the idea behind magic was simply that it was possible to, as it were, bribe the universe into doing what you wanted. That if you got the spell right, you could change things to suit you better. And the worship of pagan gods was pretty similar in approach: ‘if we give the gods stuff – animals, or gold, or even people – then they will give us what we want in return’. Christianity, like Judaism, is fundamentally opposed to this idea, because we believe in a Creator who has made the world, and that rather than being a chaos that can be manipulated, the world is underpinned by some sort of truth or order. This is why so many scientists have been Christian: they were looking to find evidence of an underlying consistency and beauty.

But the magical mindset can be too easily imported into Christianity. It is quite easy to see prayer as a way of bargaining with God for stuff: ‘Dear God, I’ve been very good, and done what you asked, so can England win the World Cup please?’ And the Eucharistic prayer, the centre of all our Christian prayer, has regularly been seen as a magic ritual: someone wearing funny clothes recites a whole series of special magic words, to the accompaniment of incense and bells, all of which makes something magic happen, if you get it right.

So what is the difference? Why isn’t prayer like magic? Well, really it’?s because while the point of magic is to change things to suit us, the point of prayer is to change us to suit God. Prayer for a Christian (or doubtless for a member of the other ‘great’ world religions) is basically spending time in God’s presence. This can be done in an infinite variety of ways, including by walking about, talking, listening, singing, chanting, or being still. And in prayer we properly ask for things for ourselves, and for others. But the most important thing about prayer is that it gives God a chance to make us more like Him. Archbishop Rowan wonderfully described prayer as like getting a suntan – you don’t need to concentrate, just open yourself to the presence of the sun and it will do the rest! (This might also work for the people we bring before God – we ‘carry them into the sun’).

So the underlying emphases of magic and religion are entirely contradictory. Magic is self-centred, while prayer is focused on the other, and on recognising a truth that is not dependent on oneself. This brings us right back to the Eucharist, that great prayer of thanksgiving and love, in which the Creator gives Himself that we might become like Him, in love and truth and service. It is at the heart of the Christian life precisely because it is where God, with our help, is changing us to be like Him, and through us changing the world. Deo Gratias!