Prayer

I really enjoyed the poem called Praying. I have always struggled with prayer and how it works. I hear preachers saying these long elegant prayers and it always makes me think why? Why do you need to say all of those words? Does saying long and elegant prayers make someone better at praying? I think we make this simple act harder than it has to be. It is really simple. Mary Oliver says it best, “It doesn’t have to be the blue iris…” just say what’s on your mind. Don’t try and concoct a perfect prayer. I believe simple prayers have more impact. Prayer, to me, is more of a listening process than a speaking process.

The poem, The Uses of Sorrow, is short but sweet. At the beginning of this class, we talked a lot about sorrow and darkness, but I think these are two very important things. Through sorrow we can find joy. When a love one dies we find joy in that our love one is with the Father. Happiness in times of sorrow is often hard to find but if we look hard enough it will show itself. Mary Oliver writes, “It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.” Time heals all wounds and reveals lessons that were hard to learn at the time. It also interesting that under the title Oliver writes in parenthesis (In my sleep I dreamed this poem).

My favorite example of prayer is also the simplest:

Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name. 
Your Kingdom come, 
your will be done, 
on earth as in heaven
 Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us. 
Lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil. 
For the kingdom, 
the power and the glory are yours. 
Now and for ever.

Amen.