Categories: church
Tags: prayer, Christianity
Date: 04 November 2005 16:23:07
The wibsite's very own Unordered has been musing about praying set prayers, and whether they are as meaningful as prayers in our own words. That's not a very good paraphrase, check out Unordered for a much better musing on the subject. For me, I think I can say that I've often found set, pre-written prayers more meaningful, for lots of reasons.
Firstly, when I pray my own words it gets so laden down with "justs" and "reallys" that I end up getting really irritated with myself. Which isn't the best attitude to have when communing with the divine, I find.
Secondly, with set prayers and with liturgy more generally, I love that I'm not the only one praying these things. Individual prayer is often so, well, individual, and doesn't get to the heart of community in the same way that praying the same thing alongside many others. It makes me feel a part of a much bigger whole, and that gives me a sense of the wonder and greatness of God at the midst of this (admittedly flawed but still occasionally wonderful) community.
Thirdly, I love the poetry and language and craft of lots of the prayers and liturgies. They didn't just pop out of someone's brain, but were lovingly crafted and refined, and the beauty of the language often really moves me and speaks to me of God's creativity and craft and love. That's not to say of course that prayers that pop out of someone's brain are less *valid*, not at all, but I rarely find spontaneous prayer so moving.
Fourthly, I love the sense of continuity with the past. Not that change and new things are bad, but I think many of us particularly from an evangelical background could be accused, with some justification, of throwing out the baby with the bathwater in our quest for a new spontaneous expression of worship and prayer. Using prayers that have been prayed over the years and centuries by so many wonderful known and unknown Christians links me to their legacy, and in a way provides another layer of meaning to their prayers - just as those who will come after us, praying the same things, continue the beliefs and desires and longings for God that we express now.
Fifthly, when I pray in my own words, I find I often don't actually *have* the words I need. When I was in a charismatic church I used to pray in tongues when I didn't know what to say. Which was fine, but it was easy to let my mind wander. Using someone else's words helps me to retain focus, and gives me words when I don't have them. [Of course, sometimes when you don't have words it's best just to shut up. But sometimes you need to say something, anything]
Mind you, sometimes a spontaneous prayer is the only thing that will do. There are times when "shit!" or "gah!" or "oh wow!" have been every bit as heartfelt and meaningful as the most beautifully poetic prayer. I don't think any of them are lost on God.