CONTENTS OF PRAYER Many people - among them professing Christians as ell as devout members of other groups - learn to pray through experiences such as the events of September 11th 2001.
Such increased tensions either brought about or enlarged by tragic events lead us to the realization that we do not keep at hand a stock of "vivid" and "honest" words urged upon us by psalm writers of old or proper prayers.
They suggest words be used which express one's inmost fears and doubts; sincere and natural enough to convey such sentiments as desperation. The words are your,personal affirmation that you,too, believe God can ward off trouble or equip us to bear it. The natural use of common words - from whatever language - suggests how God belongs to all.
Many people pray only in times of trouble, but they deceive themselves because if you but look about you in the world in which we live, you will quickly
become aware of the fact that we are a part of that in which we thrive and that we are, probably, in as much or more difficulties than many of those who claim they
have been, are, or will ever be.
Issac Singer, one of our writers who has delved into that which makes people tick once said: "I only prayer when I am in trouble. But I am in trouble all the time, and so I pray all the time."
We often, today, express our chagrin when we read news accounts of misfortune, crime, hatred, avarice and cruelty and prayer wells up naturally as we seek to allay calamities, but very often the causes thereof are overlooked in the conquest of the immediate evil.
A.L.M. July 6, 2005 [c291wds]
