Writing Prayers

I think it is no secret that I am a big believer in prayer.  I don't mean that I pray ostentatiously, in fact, a Christian is warned not to be conducting their prayers on the street corners.  However, I also know that I often fall victim to letting my mind wander when I pray.  Whether it is fatigue, distraction, or latent ADD, I often have difficulty focusing my mind during prayer.  I don't think this is an uncommon problem, but for me it is a real issue.

Prayer is the time which we are to be communing with the divine.  I have always believed that the act of prayer was when we could open our hearts and mind to the infinite.  But to do this we must be in the moment and have the power to concentrate.  I seem to have an inability to do this.  The one thing that has saved me in this regard is the idea of written prayer.  It is a little unusual and may not work for everyone, however, for me it has been, well, a Godsend.

All of my life the expression "say your prayers" has been with me.  But when I got to thinkig about it, what does that mean, "say your prayers"?  We are an incredibly verbal species.  We communicate in myriad ways, but why are we only to "say" our communications?  And ultimately prayer is about communication.  Why not write them?  I imagine that the supreme deity can read as well as listen.

Whenever I perform written prayer I want the room to be quiet:  no distractions allowed.  I grab a piece of paper and one of my best writing pens.  There is no devotional significance to the pen; it is just more comfortable to write with.  I usually take a moment to clear my mind and a few deep breaths to bring my pulse rate down and flood my brain with oxygen.  At this point, I start writing.

I start off with a moment of praise as a form of address.  One of my favorites is a a paraphrase from the Catholic liturgy.  "Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit...".  I then move on to my giving of thanks for giving me life, health, and all the material blessings of my life.  After this, I write my fears.  It is a strange thing, but when you write out your fears, suddenly they don't look so bad.

A prayer however is more than just thanksgiving and a pouring out of the everyday worries and fears.  Prayer is a petition to the King of the Universe.  When you stop and think about that, that is a pretty awesome thought.  The intelligence that created light; that flung the stars against the blackness of space will pause and little to the small pleas of an insignificant being.  By writing out those petitions, they become real and I tend to focus on the things I really need.  Fewer wants; more needs.

Once I have addressed my thanks, my fears, and my petitions, I close out my prayer by writing out my doxology.  One I particularly like is once again the Catholic phrase from prayer:  "as it was in the beginning, is now, and forevermore shall be, Amen."  I am not Catholic, but I am happy to borrower from them when it serves my purpose.

I think though, the best part of written prayer, is that the prayer is not lost.  I know G-d remembers all prayers for all individuals for all time, but being a frail human we do not.  I often keep my written prayers and will sometimes go back after a time and review them.  When I do, something marvelous often happens.  I am able to look back and see the things that I was struggling with at a point in time.  I can see the resolution of the problem and can think about how the solution was one that I could not imagine.  In addition, I look at my past petitions.  Were they answered?  Are they still "open action" items?  If the petitions were not granted, did it work out for the best?

The next time it is your moment of prayer, try written prayer.  It can be more meaningful, bring you into closer communion with the divine, and establish a record of blessings.