The privilege of praying with a person
I have been very fortunate in this parish because from time to time people have popped in and joined me in the saying morning and evening prayer. It’s about a 15-minute service with prayers, readings, the Lord’s Prayer and some canticles. Harmless, but potent stuff. The overall effect is not appreciated until much later and the pattern has been going on for some time. Like a single stitch in a beautiful quilt. It doesn’t seem like much at the time, but each tiny stitch is vital to the overall work. And to miss a day, or if you like, miss a stitch, does not seem all that appalling, but in fact, it leaves just slightly diminished. We are less than we ought to be.
Just lately something quite lovely has happened. I now have a very regular person who joins me for morning and evening prayer. It’s refreshing to have a different voice from my old drone. Instead of just quietly reading the bible to myself the words are spoken out loud and I hear them as if for the first time. It’s quite a different and liberating experience.
It’s delicious to be able to ask. “Am I the only one that doesn’t understand how come Solomon had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines?” and “What did God think about this profligacy?”
There are days when prayer just seems like hard work and days when it just seems to be part of the natural ebb and flow of us. The psalms may be tossing us about like boats bobbing on the water.
So thrill seekers, should you wish to partake of this discipline, get in touch with your nearest parish priest or get a little cluster together. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.