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.
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
