Familiarity breeds contempt. It’s true, even with prayer. Maybe especially with prayer.
- Do the prayers taught to you as a child still mean anything to you?
- How can something we’ve recited so many times still stir the heart and fill the soul?
Most of us have been reciting The Lord’s Prayer since we were children. In my Roman Catholic tradition, I was also taught the “Hail Mary,” a prayer to my guardian angel, and the “Act of Contrition,” said when I confessed my sins to the priest. I’ve said those many, many times.
In nursery school my children were taught a simple prayer before meals that is familiar to most everyone:
“God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen”
It was the prayer we said as a family before meals for many years.
When do prayers such as these lose their meaning? Can it be restored, and how? Continue reading “With prayer book in hand (and cat on my lap): achieving harmony through chanted prayer”
Be as One 