A Life of Prayer

             When it comes to prayer, I am an amateur.  I have been in places where   ministers delivered eloquent prayers at the beginning of meetings, and I was struck by how easily it came to them.  Mostly, these prayers were instructions to God as to how we were all to be enabled to serve.  I don’t do that very well.  All of my seminary training has brought me to a place of awe when it comes to God.  My own experience of God’s magnificent love also tells me that God knows very well what we all need and will provide it, no matter what our instructions to God entail.

            We Episcopalians have what we call The Book of Common Prayer (BCP).  It began with Thomas Cranmer during the rule of Henry VIII at the time of the English Reformation and it has come down to us with changes from that time.  I have always found it to be helpful when I am trying to find a way to communicate with God.  The BCP has in it well written prayers for everything we need: for the hungry, the oppressed, for children and adults, for our families and for prisoners.  All of the ways that our Lord instructed us to work in this world can find voice in the prayers in this book.  It also contains rituals for things that we need to do as individuals and as a church in the community.  There is a service of baptism, both for the community of the church, and for individuals who can also baptize.  There are forms for prayers for the sick and for the dying and we are encouraged to use them in our ministries to each others.

             In a hospital, I was once summoned into a room by a group of Greek people who wanted me to anoint their mother lying in the bed.  Apparently, the Greek priest had refused to come for one reason or another, and they wanted their mother to be anointed before her certain death, which I am sure happened within a couple of days.  I struggled with this at the time, but I made the sign of the cross over her, put some oil on her forehead and offered prayers for her soul to God.  When I was doing this, the family huddled at the foot of the bed and continually crossed themselves and joined with me in their own prayers for this woman.  Afterwards, they thanked me profusely.  Moments like this for me are what extemporary prayer is all about. 

            In our Eucharist, there is a place for what we call the Prayers of the People.  There are six forms in the BCP and each of them provides places for each of us to either silently or aloud to offer our prayers to God for what we need.  The reader of the prayer lists the names that have been provided before the service and many, many others are added by the people in the pews.  This time for me has always been a wonderful exercise in community with the people exercising their ability to offer private prayers to God in the middle of a community worship service. 

            My own private prayer life is fairly simple.  I gather prayers during the day by looking at the world that I inhabit.  I read Facebook and the messages that I get on my computer and by interaction with others through the day.  I offer these needs to God at quiet moments during the day and before I sleep at night.  I know that God is present in my life and I am certain that God is also present in the lives of the people around me.  My prayer is always evolving and I continue to learn.  I think that is what God has in mind for all of us.