Throwing Myself Into Prayer
August 7, 2007 - 9:56pm by ThomasI bought the Glenstal Prayer Book and started using it today. I really had no idea what to expect, a young emergent Protestant eyeing up a Celtic Benedictine prayer book. I don't know what to look forward to, but it slowed me down this morning. Reading prayer makes you concentrate on the words far more than regular reading...which makes me think reading the Scriptures should be thought of as more prayer and conversation than reading.
How is your prayer book experience, if you have one? And more importantly, as I too am thinking about it: what is the value, if any, of having a book of prayer?
Comments
I read those prayers during Lent a few years back, morning/evening prayers (well, to be honest it was usually morning *or* evening prayers).
Now I'm reading/praying from The Spiritual Psalter by Ephraim the Syrian as complied by Theophan the Recluse (and the OT Psalms).
Honestly I'm don't feel very good at extemporaneous prayer, so I find a prayer book invaluable.
I'm currently reading "Guerrillas of Grace" by Ted Loder. Like you, reading prayers slows me down. I concentrate on the words, the flow, and the meanings. I've found that Loder's prayers often become mine because he is able to articulate what is often fuzzy in my own soul.