Most every week at our rather informal early-morning English church service here in La Paz, the pastor of the service, Pablo, recruits people from the group to speak, share, teach or testify, depending on the person. We’ve had some great sharing in the spirit of the Lenten season (for newbies to the liturgical world, these folks really seem to get it!).
Today was no different. There’s this cool guy at church I am just getting to know. Anyway, he shared today about his journey from a low-church life to a liturgical way of living out his faith.
It was a great testimony, as well as a rocking defense for liturgical piety. I wanted to get my hands on all those prayer books he had from Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican traditions! But one thing he said really hit me. It was great, and it was something I had been noticing and appreciating about my devotions in the Book of Common Prayer of late.
He shared about the prayer forms in the various traditions’ prayer books, and he pointed out that what they do really well is to bring to mind prayer concerns we normally would not think of. Sins we overlook, too.
And here was the kicker: he said that the prayers always mention various prayers for the Church as a whole. “We pray for Your holy catholic Church… that we all may be one,” for example.
He asked, “When’s the last time you just prayed for the Church?”
I used to hate the prayer forms. It was the one thing I could not get into in our worship back in the States. I missed my high school days when my United Methodist pastor Duane Anders would walk up and down the aisles every Sunday asking for “Joys and Concerns”. I loved the time of sharing that brought. I still miss it, and I still think churches – even ones with form prayers – should do it.
But recently, I had to decided to add the prayer forms (especially Form V) to my time in the lectionary and praying the collects. Once I started doing it – and pausing to actually lift up to the Lord the various concerns the prayers brought to mind – I started loving it! No more did have to rely on my scattered little mind to know how to come before the Father. No more, “Lord, I just um… Yeah, I thank You, um… for this day.” Now, I had prayer concerns – which, by the way, were being prayed somewhere else by many others at that moment! – that truly mattered: Unity in the Body, our bishops and pastors (who needs to wait for “Pastor Appreciation Month”?), our sins, the lost, our own ministries in the church etc. etc.
So, next time you are stuck, totally stuck, saying, “Um, I just” to the Lord for the hundredth time in a prayer session, open a prayer book (if you don’t have one, many are online. You can start at http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/pray&tnx.pdf or http://vidicon.dandello.net/bocp/ – scroll down a bit and click on “Prayers of the People”). The Book of Common Prayer (just one of the many great prayer books from one of many great traditions in the Body) is free and all over the Internet. The above links are two that I have found.
Try it. You may like it. At the very least, your mind will be flooded with many new things to pray for! Pray on!
If you are one who is new (or experienced) in praying with a prayer book (of any Christian tradition), I welcome you to write comments sharing your experiences with times in prayer. The Lord be with You.
