Prayers for Lent, Day 20: Give Up, Take On, Pray

Prayer  is a...nongeographic space that one enters at one's own peril, for it houses God during those few moments of one's presence there, and what is there will most surely change everything that comes into it....Ever traveling as we travel, moving as we move, prayer grips like home, until the heart belongs nowhere else and the body can scarcely function apart from them both. Prayer is dangerous and the entrance way to wholeness.  ~ Phyllis Tickle* 1934-


How do you pray?  There are many ways - some use formally constructed prayers written by others, some pray spontaneously in a group.  Some pray in silence and alone.  What are the reasons for your prayers - intercessory (on behalf of others), thanksgiving (for blessings in life), petition (request for yourself), penitence (you're sorry for something), to give praise to God without asking or expecting a return?  How do you want to pray? Step one: Dear God, [fill in the rest here]...

Dear God,
       Sometimes I find it difficult to know what to say to You even though I don't seem to have a problem talking to anyone else. What words are best? What should I be saying? Do the words matter? 
       For today, I will give up trying to pray the way I think is correct and take on speaking to You from my heart.  I will pray to share sacred space with You, often. Is it true that I can be transformed by engaging with You regularly? That does feel a little dangerous but, You are God, what better danger can there be?  amen.




*Phyllis Tickle is an accomplished author and lecturer whose focus is primarily religion and spirituality. She has served as a teacher, professor, and an academic dean and as an editor for St. Luke's Press, Peachtree Publishers, and Publishers Weekly. Her best known works are The Great Emergence - How Christianity is Changing and Why and her series on The Divine Hours.  An Episcopal lay woman, Ms. Tickle lives in Tennessee with her husband.
  
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