what is prayer – Beguine Again

I feel like I've been the biggest slacker there is. And yet I know that I have been working hard. But I have neglected my postings about prayer. I have thought about it week after week. I think that I am resistant to posting about it because it is beyond definition. I don't want to say it is this or that. Because it is this and that. Or none of the above. For me, it is a mystery. So, yesterday, I posted on Facebook: "What is prayer to you?" I got a few responses. I thought I'd share them as a found poem. A found poem is: Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry (a literary equivalent of a collage) by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting...

"Chaplain, will you pray for me?" "What about praying together?" "I don't know how." I wonder how many of us are actually in this category of unknowing. Not knowing how. Or maybe not feeling that we are worthy of prayer. I know the incarcerated young people I work with often think of themselves as unworthy and unknowing. Before I deepened my spiritual life, I think I most often thought of prayer as that thing that was done in stilted language at the Thanksgiving Dinner table asking to bless the meal. It went something like this: Gracious God, thou art good. Thank you for providing this food this day. I as thou to bless it. We are grateful that thou hast brought us together on this day. Bless us and may blessing reign down from heaven. Amen. I can't even communicate the durat...

Tag: what is prayer

Tuesday’s Prayer: What is prayer?

Prayer and Its Many Forms