Prayer

I came across a draft of an email I apparently never sent. It was from years ago (the friend who it was addressed to has changed his email address more than once since then) but I thought that maybe it would be something worth sharing on the blog (and yes, I'm getting kind of desperate for material already -- you might want to help me out a little lest I start to slow down and thus stop for another 6 months).

Anyway, I was emailing about something that Lauren Winner wrote about in her book Mudhouse Sabbath (and if you haven't read the book, you really should, I'm a big fan). Ms. Winner was an Orthodox Jew turned Christian. In the book Mudhouse Sabbath she explores some of the Jewish traditions in light of her new faith. The section I was talking about in my email is where she discusses the liturgical prayers that Orthodox Jews use. They have prescribed prayers for many daily activities. When she became a Christian she fell away from that and used more free form prayers. A point in her chapter is that while liturgical prayers can sometimes become rote, they also can sometimes make us less selfish than free form prayers, molding our thoughts to the creator rather than trying to mold the creator to our thoughts.

I have discussed this chapter with a number of people since I read the book and I think it's a very interesting argument but it wasn't the point of my email.

In my email I was discussing how even those of us who were brought up without much influence of traditional prayers (I had never even seen The Book of Common Prayer until after I read Mudhouse Sabbath) tend to start to create our own traditions in prayer. In the same way that a number of Jewish prayers begin Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu (I think it's loosely translated as Blessed art though Lord God. . .) I find that often I open my prayers Dear Lord God. . . and end them with in Jesus Name, Amen (decidedly less Jewish :)). Another woman who I used to pray with used to chant throughout her prayer Abba, father. I don't know that this is earth shattering, but I do think it's interesting. How about you? If you grew up a "free form" Christian, do you find yourself praying in patterns?