Instead of relying upon our own ideas, our own words, and our own energies there is another method. This method is from the Bible and it has been practiced throughout the history of the Church. I call it "sacred prayers and sacred rhythms." In my book, Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today
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I show how God gave to us a prayer book -- the Psalms -- and God gave us that book so we would learn how to pray by praying the prayers of the Psalms. Then we learn that Jesus prayed this way too -- at set times he used set prayers and he expected his followers to do the same. Jesus then added to the prayers of the Bible: he gave to you and me the Lord's Prayer to teach us how to pray. Who wants to tell us today about their experience of learning to pray with the Church by using the great prayers of the Bible and the Church?
Here are the words of Jesus for one of these great Bible prayers, the Lord's Prayer:
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."2 He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
Simple words to repeat. Daily.
The early Christians were known to have said the Lord's Prayer at set hours -- three times a day. And the Church has always prayed daily at set times.
If you are discouraged about your praying I suggest you learn about and then practice the gentle habits of sacred prayers and sacred rhythms -- saying the great prayers of the Bible and the Church at set times. Discouragement may pass away without your not even knowing it.
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As someone new to this form of prayer, I got a lot out of Robert Benson's "In Constant Prayer."
I just finished Scot's book, Praying with the Church as well. While I thought this was my least favorite McKnight work thus far (due to the repetition), it does an excellent job of introducing a noobie regarding the sacred rythms to how and why we pray with the church. I have started using Tickle's divine hours, pocket edition and appreciate the fact that I can be in prayer without feeling like I myself am praying the same things I always pray. It helps encourage creativity in my own prayers as well.
This is a bit different, but several years ago I looked at the verse which says "be anxious for nothing but ask for everything you need in prayer and supplication and the peace of God which passes all understanding will be your in Christ Jesus" (or something close to that - I'm too lazy to look it up this morning). I decided based on this verse that every time I became anxious or worried, I would take that as life's way of reminding me to pray. Given that I was recovering from a serious case of clinical depression, this virtually translated into praying constantly. And it had a permanent, positive effect on my prayer life.
There's actually also a verse (again too lazy to look it up) which talks about the Spirit speaking for us when we can only moan wordlessly. This took a lot of pressure off of me to come up with words myself.
Finally, I actually wrote something a while ago about the effect of praying a morning prayer daily through high school:
http://theupsidedownworld.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/a-prayer-to-begin-your-day-with/
Scott,
I am just now coming back to this practice of prayer. I grew up in a mainline church and lived in this type of prayer environment for a long time. At age 21 I "rebelled" and joined an independent evangelical church. I am now 49 and the cumulative effects of helter-skelter, do-your-own-thing prayer habits (or lack thereof) have left me very hungry and feeling disconnected from the larger Church body. The return back to the habit of prayer has been a blessing.
One of the beauties of this type of prayer, is that not only do I join with the Brothers in my community, but with Christians of all times and places throughout the world. I join in the same prayers that the faithful have said from darkest ages past to today.
Thanks for writing this book.
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