Praying in Chapel

Today at Roberts community chapel, our speaker is my spiritual adviser and the director of spiritual formation at the seminary. Her topic is renewal through prayer. What a gentle and gracious woman she is as she talks briefly about the ancient traditions of prayer. But what makes this service so amazing is that rather than only talking to us about prayer, she leads us in community prayer. She has selected encouraging passages and set them together so that they are easy to follow and we know what to do, what is our part, what is her part. Some are read responsively, some are sung, some are silent, some are read to us.

Like a good hostess, she invites us to the table and provides us with the right utensils and service ware to partake and enjoy. How uplifting to hear the community say words of significance together, words that travel around the room, yes, but words that surely travel beyond ourselves to the ears of God Almighty. We hear his response through the Scriptures. We address commonalities of concerns, identify our humanness, are encouraged to know we are not alone. This is a wonderful and profound service that will travel some good ways with us as we end the service and go our separate paths.

Teach us to pray, O Lord. And keep drawing us into your presence. We leave feeling somehow refreshed and renewed. The flavor will color the rest of the day and beyond. Delightful.