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Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 1184
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Sunday, December 05, 2004 - 10:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I titled this topic Prayer Traditions and not Prayer because I want to learn about your alls prayer traditions and prayer rituals. Not prayer requests. I love saying the litergy. I like the prepared prayers. I ended up in an Episapalian church on Thanksgiving Eve and I noticed in the pews they had their Book of Common Prayers. In the type of Christian churches that I'm most comfortable the Our Father is recited at every service in unison by the congreation. The Our Father is taught to the children as soon as they can learn it. In fact, they learn it because they hear it so much. It's just a part of their growing up. It is a given. In fact, this is one thing that I am very thankful for as in my childhood every night before going to bed my dad would kneel at my bedside with me and him and me would pray the Our Father together. When I was a little girl in the SDA church the congreation would recite the Our Father in unison at the Saturday service. I haven't seen that done in a SDA church in decades. Now they do something they call The Garden of Prayer which I haven't been able to figure out the point of. I have heard from SDA's that it is a conference ordered ritual. Reading and learnig the words to many hymms one will see that those hymms are prayers. As are numerous Psalms as well as various other Bibical passages. I especially like reciting the creeds. I really put my heart into the meaning of the prepared prayers. I do not say them just because they are printed on the paper and I can read them. Valerie, Do you like the reciting of the Our Father over at the Presperterian? What are some of your prayer traditions? Rituals? Does any of you others out there attend a Luturigical religious body? Loren? Please share.
Colleentinker
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Username: Colleentinker

Post Number: 1042
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Monday, December 06, 2004 - 9:12 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

One thing I've begun to find very meanginful is to pray Scripture for people. In our women's Bible study prep meeting one evening, Elizabeth Inrig said, "You don't have to know everybody's prayer requests in order to pray for them. You can always pray Scripture for people when you don't know their specific needs."

A couple of Paul's prayers really have captured my attention. I pray Ephesians 1:18-19 for my son frequently, that God will give him the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that he may know God better, and that the eyes of his heart may be enlightened so he may know the hope and the riches of the glorious inheritance that God has called him to.

I often pray Colossians 1:9 for Richard, that he will be filled with the knowledge of God's will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

And so on. I'm finding that the prayers in Scripture reach right down to the heart of our experience, and we can know that when we pray these things for each other, we are praying within God's will, not just according to our own frantic desires.

Don't get me wrong--I pray lots of specific requests, also! But over all, my true desire is that those I love will grow in Jesus and become deeply rooted and established in Him.

Colleen
Helovesme2
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Username: Helovesme2

Post Number: 55
Registered: 8-2004
Posted on Monday, December 06, 2004 - 12:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was raised to believe that written 'traditional' prayers were a species of the 'vain repetitions' Jesus spoke against in the sermon on the mount. I've come to realize that actually any prayer, including your own wording, becomes 'vain repetition' if you are not actively engaged in praying it. For example, anyone see children rattle off their night time prayers in one breath as if prayer time were a speed speaking contest?

Now I like to 'read prayers', not just to repeat the words but actually pray them. I think that the prayers of the Scriptures and also the prayers of other Christians help broaden my own perspectives and help me to see my own weakness as well as new glories in Jesus. I'm really learning to appriciate them!

helovesme2
Chris
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Username: Chris

Post Number: 482
Registered: 7-2003
Posted on Monday, December 06, 2004 - 3:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I enjoy praying in the format of the Lord's prayer. I don't mean actually praying the Lord's prayer verbatim, but working through all the major sections as I pray about things like what it means for God to allow me to call Him my Father, how He wants for me to be involved in bringing reality to His Kingdom in our midst on earth, what it means to do His will, thanking him for the many blessing and necessities He provides for me and my family, etc. etc. I really like to do this while I walk and find that it can take up a good deal of time if you really meditate on the implications of each section of the Lord's prayer. I can't take credit for this though. I believe Martin Luther advocated this approach and I've also heard modern commentators recommend it as well.

Chris
Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 1188
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Monday, December 06, 2004 - 6:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Someone tell me if there are any SDA churches in which the Our Father is still recite congreationally? When I was a lttle girl the SDA churches still did this. I haven't observed this in a SDA church in many, many years now. And, what's with their Garden of Prayer? And, Chris Martin Luther did recommend contemplative prayer on each of the sections of the Our Father. There is also The Stations of the Cross for reflecting on the last hours of Jesus leading up to His cruisifiction.
Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 804
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Monday, December 06, 2004 - 7:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My favorite written prayer is the Serenity Prayer. It is very meaningful to me when ever I pray it. I do not know to many other written prayers. As an SDA we did not learn them, but the Serenity prayer I learned in my 12 step program. We also recite the Lord's Prayer there and other written prayers.
Diana
Pw
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Username: Pw

Post Number: 220
Registered: 6-2004
Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 11:42 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What I like about Calvary Chapel is how the musicians in the worship ministry plays songs adaptated from the Pslams into contemporary worship. It brings the prayers of David alive even more.
Dane
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Username: Dane

Post Number: 81
Registered: 4-2004
Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 1:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I too think that the written prayers in many of the prayer book can play an important part in our spiritual life. This has been a grand tradition in the church from the very first.

In fact, during the first century we know that believers usually sang Psalms, which are prayers put to music. And as Susan 2 pointed out, many of our hymns are prayers.

I personally think that any time we praise God, we are praying. In fact, I find it particularly rewarding to sometimes pray/praise with the sole content of my prayer focused on the majesty and love of God, not asking anything for myself, but just expressing my awe of Him. This really helps me to put things in perspective. I love Him! I love Him! I love Him!

Dane
Susan_2
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Username: Susan_2

Post Number: 1194
Registered: 11-2002
Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 1:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Prayer of St. Francis of Asissi/ Lord, make me an instrament of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is discourage, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness joy. Oh, Heavenly Father, grant that I may not so much seek to be counseled as to cousil, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we recieve; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying (to self) that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Helovesme2
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Username: Helovesme2

Post Number: 63
Registered: 8-2004
Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 1:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Come to think of it, in history class, I believe, I learned that for centuries the churches sang Psalms, or at least scriptures, almost exclusively. The hymns of John Wesley were considered 'modern nonsense' not fit to be sung in churches. Partly because they were new (at a time innovation was a bad word) and partly because the tunes chosen were the common pub tunes that 'popular music' was set to.

helovesme2

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