Old Prayers

[izhilzha]

Tonight, during the worship at my church, a psalm and a John Donne poem were read.

Both of them, I have used as prayers myself, in the past. I don't mean once or twice; I mean I've lived with these words breathing in and out of me. Yet until tonight, I don't think I'd ever heard anyone use either one in a church setting.

Comments

[fpb]

I generally only use the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. But it's funny that you should have chosen those two, because they are close to two prayers (or poems, as I think of them) that mean most to me: Psalm 18(19) - The heavens proclaim the glory of the Lord - and Donne's sonnet beginning Wilt Thou forgive that sin whence I began? Funny: so close, and yet so far.

[izhilzha]

Interesting!

I, too, use the Lord's Prayer...and many other scriptures and poems (Gerard Manley Hopkins comes to mind, as well as Donne), and prayers like St. Patrick's Breastplate.

Song of Lament

[anonymous]

These are one of the two types of songs our minister spoke about last week. The songs--that Christians need to learn and encorporate into daily worship (we're doing a year-long study of worship)-- are the song of joy and the song of lament. Yours are, of course, of the lament variety, and are quite beautiful. The song/lyrics Craig (the minister in question) used in his message was "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redmond. It contains both types of songs. Lyrics can be found here

Re: Song of Lament

[izhilzha]

Hey, I know that song, we sing it at my church. :-) A good example, too, huh, because it's both a song of joy and of lament. Sort of.

I think I need to learn the song of joy... at least learn to use it more than I have. I've got the song of lament down. *g*

Just thought I'd share. This must be something else I'm supposed to learn, as this is the second time it's been brought to my attention in a short period of time.

You think so? Well, we'll learn together, maybe. Cool.

Happy Monday to you too!

[whitemartyr]

Okay, wow. The first one? They had a sermon about that in...oh, around August at North Shore Alliance. I cried through most of it. It was at the beginning of the prison period. It's crazy to read it again.

And the second one? I forgot about that poem. It's so beautiful.

[lizamanynames]

I don't think I've heard either of those before - but they ARE beautiful.

I tend to repeat the Lord's Prayer, and The New Creed of the United Church of Canada:

We are not alone,
we live in God's world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God's presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.

We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

But mostly I sing hymes. I've got over a hundred I know all the words to and call up from memory when appropriate.

[izhilzha]

That's pretty cool; I only recently memorized the older Creeds.

And I wish I knew hymns! Unfortunately (at least in that one regard), I was raised in a charsimatic/Pentacostal church, so praise songs are much more familiar to me. Or were. I'm picking up some hymns from my current Presbyterian church; and when I was in Canada for school, I went to an Anglican church and they also sang hymns.

[lizamanynames]

Wheras I'm really not familiar with praise songs - or at least don't know the term.

[kerravonsen]

They're songs that are too newfangled to be called hymns. Y'know, like being less than a century old... (grin)