i am crap at praying. i've got a spiritual director and every time i meet him (normally every few months) i normally find myself saying the same thing: 'i don't know how to pray'. over the last few years i've been discovering different ways to pray. this was important for me because being generally crap at praying it's good to have some different approaches. one of the things i have found really helpful is liturgy (I am after all a good Anglican). i have found some of David Adams' (not to be confused with Brian Adams (he of highly dubious AOR fame) as my wife calls him) stuff brilliant (he has a book called 'Rhythms of Life' which has morning, midday, evening and night prayer for each day of the week, each with a different theme e.g. Sunday - Resurrection). more recently i have been using the daily office produced by the Northumbria Community. What I like about this one compared to the Brian, sorry, David Adams' stuff is that includes a lectionary and a different meditation for the day. it also includes feast days (odd expression) for saints so when a particular saint pops up in the calender it has a reading about that person's life which can be quite inspiring. some of the readings and meditations can be a bit 'hey nonny no'...you know..a bit folky...and i would love it if they got someone to take the structure/framework and do a kind of young adult/contemporary culture version of the readings. with a lot of these Celtic prayer communities there can be a bit of a surface culture of fiddle playing, yohgurt weaving folkiness. but i think there is something really valuable below the surface which is worth excavating. i bought the book which is quite a nice things to have but the link below will take you to the online version of their daily office.
Welcome to the home of the Northumbria Community online
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2 comments:
thanks for this encouragement Matt, I've just posted on a related topic... would love to hear your thoughts ... follow the link thru' my name...
btw i really like your first post - perhaps you should put some summary of that in your profile so it doesn't get lost at the bottow of the heap as you keep posting... it was such a good summary of reasons why to blog and why not to take it too seriously!
see ya tonight
I've found the words of the apostle Paul helpful on this subject:
Anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed no-one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit....He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.All the best and thanks for your blog!
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