An Invitation to Prayer

As a minister who does not easily use the word God, I used to find the idea of prayer not useful.  But, I have recently decided that those of us who don’t believe in the traditional understanding of God, still ought to be able to say prayers that have meaning to us!  One year I decided that I would write a daily prayer each morning that merely captured what was in my heart.  I don’t worry about who or what is hearing the prayer.  I am concerned more with where the prayer comes from than where it goes.   I commend this practice to you whether you are theist, Buddhist, atheist, “spiritual but not religious” or any other variety of religious expression.  I will post here samples of daily prayers..  Further down the page you will see samples of a variety of non-traditional prayer possibilities. 

 

Some days I sit down

with intention to pray

and nothing comes to mind.

I see my prayers

are often wishes.

Maybe today

I have no wishes.

Maybe, just maybe…

I am satisfied!

 

~ ~ ~ ~

 

A drizzly gray day.

I’m tempted to pray

for sun…

Yet, even more

I want to learn

to bear the gray

with some measure

of equanimity.

 

~ ~ ~ ~

 

I made a mess

of a meeting

I facilitated yesterday.

All night

ruminating

on how it could have been

better.

Seeing failure up close

with all its pock marks

and scars

weighs me down today.

That’s all.

Just a confession.

 

Non-traditional prayer methods

 

“Praying with your body”.

 

Stand in your body.  Take a few deep inhales and exhales.  Sigh.  Yawn.  Stretch.  Then simply put on a  short piece of music that you love and allow your body to move in any way that it wants.  Try not to direct your movement, but instead just follow where your body leads you.  Don’t be too concerned about putting words to this prayer – allow yourself to simply enjoy the movement of your body.   You might want to keep a small journal to record any thoughts you have or any observations at the end of this prayer dance.  See how the days differ.  Offer this movement to the divine spark within yourself. 

Check the archive page in the menu for more prayer methods.