What is Your Prayer?

One of the Joys of the Book of Common Prayer—especially for lifelong Episcopalians—is the wonderful familiarity of prayers remembered from constant use. Who doesn't get a lump in their throat when hearing some particularly meaningful prayer remembered from another time. For this writer, it's the collect for families that usually does it.

Given the propensity of “contemporary” prayers for falling flat in their impact, it is refreshing to listen to new prayers that really connect. That's what happened when I read a set of Prayers of the People written especially for Lent by church school children at one parish in our Diocese. Here are some of the things they prayed for:

Please keep the world clean and give it lots of good clean water. Please pray for all of our pets and animals in the world, especially cats, horses, donkeys, big pretty lazy dogs, fish, llama, sharks and cockatiel birds.
Jesus, we love you, please hear our prayer.

Please help and take care of our policemen and women, our firefighters, our teachers, our principals, our cafeteria ladies, the crossing guards, and the custodians. Oh, and also take care of our families.
Jesus, we love you, please hear our prayer.

For all people who do not feel good, lets send them cards and flowers. For people who have died we want to give their families love and help them not to cry and let all give them hugs.
Jesus, we love you, please hear our prayer...

Jesus we pray for all your love to be shared among all the living creatures in the world. And peace be with us everywhere.

Cafeteria ladies, eh? How's that for praying in terms that connect to your own world? Perhaps we could take a lesson in connecting from these children. Kudos to them—and to the teachers who encouraged them—for their work.