An online dictionary defines to pray as: “to speak to a god either privately or in a religious ceremony in order to express love, admiration or thanks or in order to ask for something”.
I wondered at the addition of the phrase “either privately or in a religious ceremony”, but I realised that, for me, there are differences in private or public prayer.
When praying on my own, I think of God as Abba, father; of Jesus as the incarnate God who walked this earth, yet whom I can approach as a friend; of the Holy Spirit as Sarayu (a Sanskrit word meaning moving fast or wind) a name popularised by William P Young in The Shack. My personal prayers are short, long, simple, convoluted, desperate, thankful, rejoicing, boring… The prayers I use in public should be similarly varied - except NOT boring and also not long.
I suspect I’m not alone in finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on other people’s long prayers. After three or four sentences, my attention focusses on one word and I lose the thread of the preacher’s thought. To combat this, I use four short prayers – rather than the more standard two long prayers. One has responses; one is written by someone else, one involves “audience participation” and one is extempore. (Or perhaps not; I thought extempore meant off the cuff. It actually means done without any preparation or thought. In my case that would lead to rambling!) Silent prayer is also useful.
Having established that pattern of four, I try hard not to keep them in that order. Yet I do find myself having responses with the first prayer - adoration; a prayer of confession from a book; a prayer of thanks with support from the congregation and lastly I make up the intercessions. That’s because mixing up the style of prayer hits a snag. People love to shout out ideas for intercessory prayer; folk are great at suggestions for thanksgiving but few are happy to come up with things that need forgiveness. Intercessory prayers in books tend to be too long – prayers for everything and not necessarily linked to the theme of the service.
Am I right to suggest informal prayer in private and more structured and formal prayer in public? I think so. I treasure a Manual for Ministers published in the 1930s which includes a prayer for the opening of a bazaar!
Heavenly Father, reassure us that you both hear and answer our prayers, whether primitive or laboured over, whether spoken through microphones or in our hearts. Jesus, our Saviour, remind us to follow your example and withdraw to pray often. Holy Spirit, blessed wind, blow away our preconceived ideas of what prayer is and be with us in all our groanings. Amen.
Elaine Kinchin