prayer

A twinge of discomfort

Mon, 02/08/2010 - 10:53 — Don Scrooby

Don Scrooby's blog

Recently I was in a communion service diligently following the words and responses of the liturgy. The phrase, “Have mercy on us O God” was constantly repeated in a litany of sins confessed. Touched by a twinge of discomfort, I looked around at the expressions of my fellow worshippers to see if I was alone in this sentiment. It seemed I was. Most people were responding almost mechanically with the phrase and I couldn’t help but wonder what was actually going on in that unconscious realm where our perceptions are shaped and forged, especially when certain phrases carry certain meanings which have been infused over years of repetitive and almost hypnotic announcement.

If we were able to have entered that unconscious realm, I would have staked my life on the fact that the dominant perception in the minds of most worshippers there that day, was one of trying to wring out mercy and forgiveness from a God they were not sure would actually give it. Many are absolutely saturated with this way of believing, and persistently saying these words, just re-enforces the belief.

“Have mercy on us O God” is not an attempt to try and get the Divine to do what the Divine may or may not do... READ MORE.

 

Rachel Hackenberg's picture

Hope

Mon, 11/30/2009 - 11:09 — Rachel Hackenberg

Rachel Hackenberg's blog

Still Coming God,
we long for a glimmer
a hint
that you are almost here
and our work is
almost done.
We pray
"Make it better"
through the dark nights
and are met
with
silence.... READ MORE.

 

Gordon Atkinson's picture

Rosary adventures

Thu, 08/28/2008 - 21:15 — Gordon Atkinson

I grew up Baptist. Southern Baptist to be specific. I'm not saying that I grew up deficient in my understanding of more liturgical and sacramental traditions, but when I got to San Antonio and saw someone with ashes on her forehead on Ash Wednesday, I said, "You have a little smudge there."

She said, "It's ashes."

I said, "Okay, ashes, dirt, whatever. I was just trying to help."

Yeah.

I've come a long way in the journey of stretching and integrating many kinds of Christian devotion and worship practices into my life. Somewhere along the way I picked up a rosary and fell in love with it. Seriously, prayer beads are the answer for those of us with attention deficit issues.

Someone gave me my first rosary. I lost it. I made one and someone stole it. I made another and gave it away because I thought I heard the Spirit say, "Give that man your rosary." He looked pretty shocked, so later I wondered if maybe I was just having indigestion. I made another one but it broke and the beads went all over the ground.

This is my current rosary. It's sturdy and simple. I just got tired of losing my fancy ones. Instead of decades going around in a circle, I just keep going up and down the string through my big beads and set of 10 little beads. I have my own prayers that I pray.

One Sunday my Bible study class asked me to share with them the journey of my rosary. Wouldn't you know it, we had a visitor that week. He was looking for a Baptist church in town. Then the pastor pulls out his rosary. He didn't even bother staying for worship.

I was fascinated this week to find out that John Hamilton has been on a prayer journey himself, learning to pray the rosary. John is a fellow Baptist, so I was greatly interested. He writes about it here and here and here.

Baptists praying the rosary. What is the world coming to?

Heck, Reverend Mommy is even getting in on the action..

Do you use a rosary or prayer beads? If so, how did you start? And what is your practice? What does it mean for you and how does it help you pray?

If you've blogged about your rosary, leave us a link in the comments and we'll check it out.

rlp