Liturgical Prayer
What is liturgical prayer?
Liturgical prayer is a set way of praying often using prayer books. On our web-site, we provide
Prayer Points, which are a more contemporary type of liturgical prayer. Praying in this way provides a framework for prayer as there are preset scriptures, psalms, and written prayers to pray each day.
Why liturgical prayer? Isn't it better just to say what I want to say to God when I pray?
There are certain benefits to having a liturgy to follow in prayer. It
creates a framework and a starting point for prayer, within which we
find a surprising amount of freedom. There are a couple of resources
below that describe the benefits of liturgical prayer. The first is a
video by N.T. Wright, an evangelical Anglican bishop and widely read
and respected theological writer. Bishop wright talks about how
liturgy, while seeming to be constraining, can actually free people up to
enter into prayer:
N.T. Wright on the freedom that comes from liturgy.
The second is a quote by Lauren F. Winner from her book
Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline.
Lauren was an Orthodox Jew who converted to Christianity. She
describes the meaning and benefits of her Jewish spiritual disciplines
and how she has been able to transfer the basic principles of these
disciplines into her Christian practice. In her chapter on prayer, she
makes a great (and sometimes humorous) case for liturgical prayer:
"Liturgy can be dull, and its dullness can be distracting. Sometimes I
set aside time specifically for prayer: I turn off the ringer on my
phone and light a candle and sit in my best praying chair (the club
chair with the red checked slipcover; don't ask me why, but it's
generally the best); and even then I can look down at the prayer book
in my hands and realize that I've been reading aloud for ten minutes,
yet I have no idea what I've said. My mouth may have been mouthing
psalms, but my brain was thinking grocery lists or weekend plans.
But if roteness is a danger,
it is also the way liturgy works.
When you don't have to think all the time about what words you are
going to say next, you are free to fully enter into the act of praying;
you are free to participate in the life of God.
Put differently: I have sometimes set aside my prayer book for days and
weeks on end, and I find, at the end of those days and weeks on end,
that I have lapsed into narcissism [self-centered focus]. Though
meaning to commune with or reverence or at least acknowledge God, I
wind up talking to myself about my emotions du jour. I worry
about my mother's health, or I stress about money, or (more happily) I
bop up and down with excitement about good news or sunshine or life in
general, but I never get much further than that. It is in returning to
my prayer book that places me: places me in words that ask me to
confess my sins, even when I can't think of any red-letter deeds
recently committed; words that ask me to pray for presidents and
homeless Charlottesvillians and everyone in between; words that praise
God even on the mornings when I wonder if God exists at all. (Of
course, sometimes the liturgy grandly expresses just exactly what we
feel. When you have had a lousy day at work and have used every curse
word you can think of to describe your boss, try an imprecatory psalm,
such as Psalm 35: "May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to
shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay.... May
their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing
them.")
What I say...is this: Sure, sometimes it is great when, in prayer, we
can express to God just what we feel; but better still when, in the act
of praying, our feelings change. Liturgy is not, in the end, open to our emotional whims. It repoints the person praying, taking him somewhere else."