What I will take most from the class today is the profound impact that prayer can have on the rhythm of our day. Prayer can free us from being slaves to the notion of time that permeates our society; time instead will have to roll with us. It allows us to say that there is something greater than both us and the forces of the world that push and pull us around. There is something bigger than our fears and anxieties, and right now is a perfect time, whatever time it is, to remember that. Reclaiming the ancient practice of daily prayer might help us to do that more regularly. Timothy Ness
In today’s class period I was really able to examine my own habits when it comes to prayer. We talked in class a lot of how worship is a consumer based system. This really effected me when it came to talking about prayer because that is the way that I treat prayer and how I have treated prayer my entire life. I have always only ever prayed when I needed something or when I felt like praying. I guided my prayer I did not allow my prayer to guide me. This class made me focus on that. I have been thinking for awhile how I wish I had a better prayer life. Learning more about how intentional the early church was with their prayer left a longing for me to be more intentional about my prayer. The exercise that Paul led us through lifted up that intentionality. It gave me the opportunity to experience a different kind of intentional prayer that I hope will help shape my personal prayer life. Ryan Forward
Without a question, prayer is a central element of Christian devotions. Inherited from the Jewish liturgical daily practices, it has been present in our conversations for centuries. Martyrs and councils, popes and reformers, saints and sinners, all have talked about the prominent role of this discipline in their life. For me, a 21c Christian seminarian from the Lutheran tradition, prayer is more of a question than an answer. What does it means to live prayerfully? Why we pray? It is an answer or a process? After class today and the sharing with my colleagues, I have a variety of perspective that informs my path. However, the answer I have found is that prayer is going to continue playing a main role in my life as a public leader of Word and Sacrament. Ángel David
I think that the theme that really moved me the most is that of prayer in relation to time. I really like thinking about the difference between the questions: does prayer define your/our life? OR does your life define and shape your prayer? I am going to take your recommendation/challenge and really try to pray more than once or twice a day. I think that it will have a great effect on how I see the world around me and also now I think about prayer (my theology of prayer). It is my hope that my prayers and my intentionality to prayer will help me be more in tune to the world and needs around me. Alex Kennedy
The people of God, Jewish and Christian, have found that praying regularly is truly transformative. It shapes us into the people of God. It can structure not only our days but our entire lives. IT forces us to stop what we are doing to take a breath, to pause and to acknowledge God, pure fears, doubts and anxieties. In the end we know that God is in the midst of us, and hopefully we will be changed for the better. It forces us out of ourselves to care for those near to us, and those far away. IT reminds us that we are all children of God; it reminds us that we are all in this together and that we can do nothing without the grace of God. Paul E. Adler