Experimenting with Prayer

 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11: 1).

 

When I was a little child, my parents taught me two prayers: at meals I was instructed to say, “Thank you for this food and drink for Jesus’ sake, Amen.” And at bedtime they would sing with me this little chorus:

 

Jesus, tender shepherd hear me, bless your little child tonight

Through the darkness be thou near me, keep me safe till morning light. Amen.

 

Gradually I “grew out” of these prayers and was simply encouraged to say my own “home-made” prayers at bedtime. I think they just assumed I would know how to do that. My prayers included asking forgiveness “for my many sins” (without naming any) and petitioning that my team would win the Stanley Cup (which they actually did in 1967, but they haven’t come close since). J

 

In other words, my prayer life was often relatively superficial, punctuated by occasional moments of deep intensity.

All of us -- at one time or another -- struggle with prayer.  As chaplain, I've learned that one common root of these struggles is that we aren't aware of how many different ways we can pray. Therefore, during the month of November, the Chaplaincy Team will send out a different way to pray every day, for thirty days.

We invite you to try these -- alone, in residences, in devotions to open class, in departmental devotions -- in all the places where prayer is part of our lives. They will be posted here each day (see the index to the right of this column).

 

About thirty years ago a friend challenged me to take a three day prayer retreat, and I did. After a brief introduction to the retreat, we were told to find a quiet place and spend three hours praying Psalm 23, all six verses of it! I completely panicked. How does one pray six verses for three hours?

 

Through those “Lord, teach me how to pray” hours of my life. I learned that:

 

·         When you offer God extended silences, he often shows up in unexpected ways.

·         There are hundreds of ways to pray, and the more aware we are of the “prayer-options,” the more we can choose forms of prayer that suit our personal temperaments and our particular season of life.

·         At the center, prayer is simply opening up our heart and bringing it to rest inside God’s heart.

 

Alison Krauss sings a hauntingly contemplative song called “Living Prayer,” which includes this simple chorus:  Take my life that I might be, a living prayer my God to Thee. That pretty much nails it.

We encourage you to try these different ways of praying.  We trust the Holy Spirit will bless your "prayer-experiments."

Peace,

The chaplaincy team:  Syd, Robb, Mark, Deb and Cam