Liturgical Prayer
Liturgical Prayer
As children, many of us learned to pray by memorizing prayers. We said “grace” before meals and bedtime prayers with their inevitable lists of thank yous, God blesses and forgive mes. Furthermore, churchgoers eventually memorized the Lord’s Prayer, the Gloria Patri, some hymns and probably a creed or two without even trying. These prayers and confessions became ours through countless recitations as a congregation. They represent the liturgies that formed and shaped us. Generally the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches count themselves as “liturgical churches.” But no church is without a liturgy. Every community of faith has their own particular pattern and format for prayers, responsive readings, music, offerings, sermons, offering and so forth. (Even spontaneity tends to fit into a particular slot within the pattern.) This pattern is the way they do church.
Liturgy invites us into Scripture, prayers and words of the church in a pattern that is not simply ad hoc. Liturgy is grounded in repetition, not improvisation. Its stable framework shapes community worship from week to week. The order of a service may be adjusted for a special season or reason, but the framework remains largely unchanged. Liturgical patterns call us to let go of our compulsion to lead or plunge ahead in any way we want. Their rhythms draw us into established patterns of attending to God. They give us space to use our voice, find our words, name our sin, hear God’s Word and gaze on our Creator.
Though our age tends to value spontaneity and individuality, a growing number of people are searching the depths of liturgical prayer. Alongside the popularity of conversational prayer, with its up-to-the-minute spontaneity, stands the desire to be rooted in something ancient that has survived the centuries. Liturgy can reach back two thousand years to the early church practice of daily prayer, which included the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms.
The prayer rhythms known as the common lectionary guide the church through the Old and New Testament with readings connected to the celebration of church seasons. There are readings and prayers that guide the church through Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost and Ordinary Time. Following the lectionary readings assures that the church continually hears the redemption story year after year, season after season. Even the unpopular or difficult parts of Scripture are included in the lectionary readings. Churches that embrace the lectionary bind their scattered and diverse communities into a unified chorus of worship. (Typically the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches follow some version of the lectionary in their liturgy.)
The liturgical traditions contain vast reservoirs of prayers and collects as well as readings that take a Christian through the entire scope of the church year. By attending to the set readings found in the church lexicon, we read the entire Bible over the course of a few years.
Reflection Questions
- How do you feel about written and rote prayers?
- What is the benefit or disadvantage of having said something so often that you know it by heart?
- What kind of prayer patterns do you use in prayer now?
- How has your prayer pattern changed over time?
Spiritual Exercises
- Visit a church with a different tradition than your own. What do you see about the use of liturgy in their services? Did their worship open you up to God and his family in some new way? • Where did you sense God’s presence most in the worship?
- Explore the practice of liturgical prayer through using the book The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle, or The Daily Office of the Catholic church.
- Attend the traditional Good Friday Tennebrae service or the Easter Vigil in an Anglican, Orthodox or Catholic church. How is the liturgy designed to lead you into God’s presence? • What is this service like for you?
- Check out A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants or A Guide to Prayer for All God’s People published by The Upper Room. These books provide readings and prayers for daily use.
- Use The Book of Common Prayer. Pray the Psalms in the back of the book or collects for the particular week. • What is this like for you?
- Ask someone who uses written prayers to talk to you about their prayer life. How do these prayers help them know God and grow in faith?
Resources on Liturgical Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer
The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle
“Men and women are at their noblest and best when they are on their knees before God in prayer. . . . To pray is not only to be truly godly; it is also to be truly human.” —John Stott.
Prayer Partners
DESIRE | to share the journey of prayer with a trusted companion |
DEFINITION | Prayer partners agree to support one another and pray together for their own concerns as well as world affairs. They engage in regular and consistent times of shared intercession. |
SCRIPTURE | “Stay alert, be in prayer, so you don’t enter the danger zone without even knowing it. Don’t be naive. Part of you is eager, ready for anything in God; but another part is as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.” (Mark 14:38 The Message) “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.” (Colossians 4:3) “Brothers, pray for us.” (1 Thessalonians 5:25) “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. . . . And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. . . . Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:13, 15-16) |
PRACTICE INCLUDES |
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GOD-GIVEN FRUIT |
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