Composed or Spontaneous Prayer?

Do you say grace before a meal? If so, do you spontaneously say one, or do you repeat one that you've said many times before?

If your answer was, "spontaneous," then how similar is it to every other spontaneous grace you've ever said?

One of the things I grew up with as a Protestant is the the idea that prayer should be spontaneous, in order to avoid "vain repetition" of words that had been previously put together, likely by someone else. I'll admit that I don't recall any instance when my parents specifically admonished that this should be the case, but I somehow adapted to the idea in the context of all the various prayers I heard.

In fact, in some public contexts, the prayers sounded almost more like speeches than spontaneous communications with the creator of the universe - but they didn't sound like a repetition of something I'd heard before.

So, when I came to the Roman Catholic Church, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the vast array of prayers that had already been written by someone else. Shouldn't I be using my own thoughts and relationship with God as the basis for my communication with Him?

Of course, as mentioned in another blog/chapter, I was used to repeating some Protestant versions of the Lord's Prayer. And there were also some songs that were effectively prayers (and, as also mentioned, who sings prays twice) such as the Doxology that I repeated pretty much every week.

For that matter, now that I think of it, there were many songs I was in the habit of singing which were effectively prayers - most of them hymns. But I never made the connection between those and repeating a prayer that someone else had written.

So, joining the Catholic Church and having an endless array of prayers available for me, including many that were standard parts of Sunday worship, was somewhat uncomfortable for a while.

But, just like I got used to singing the same worship songs repeatedly when growing up, I slowly got used to all these composed prayers. And now I am increasingly appreciative of the rich selection of prayers available to allow me to focus on their meaning to my deepening relationship with God, rather than having to struggle to say something original every time.

None of which takes away from the many other kinds of prayer, from personal and spontaneous, to composed, to sung, to spiritual and without English words, all of which are available in my journey as a Christian, including in the Catholic Church.

Nor does it take away from one of the least spontaneously-composed and most meaningful prayers that so many Christians speak at the beginning of their journeys, especially those that begin at events such as Billy Graham crusades:

"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."

(Copyright (c) 2011, Reg Harbeck, all rights reserved)