Saturday, March 08, 2014

Teach us to pray: 4

Ready to pray...?

A time to pray
 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;
   I will sing and make melody.
   Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre!        Psalm 108.1

Many faiths have prayers at set times of the day. Muslims pray five times a day, Jewish people pray three times. Christian monks and nuns in contemplative orders pray eight "offices" through the day and night. We may not have time for that, but there is some benefit in the routine and ritual of prayer, whatever its content. We can greet the day with prayer or end it with prayer, or we may find that the lunch break is a good time to stop and take a moment to reflect.
There are online patterns of prayer available if that helps. You could try these sites:
Daily Prayer from the Church of England
Daily Meditation from the Irish Jesuits
Apps for Daily Prayer from the Church of England
Daily Bible reading and prayer guides from the Bible Reading Fellowship (print and digital)

It may be that all you can spare is 5 or 10 minutes. That's fine. It may be that you can't manage to pray everyday either. That's fine too. But thinking of a regular time when you can pray is a good start.

  • Think through a "normal" day for you. What would be the most natural and helpful time for you to give a little time to prayer?
No Blog post tomorrow - there should be plenty of food for thought as you gather with others to worship in church anyway!

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