AH Yes

Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now. HA! Wow, this little nugget must have had a very profound impact on me. Hopefully it will. So this book that I'm reading has a chapter about prayer. I have just found it very interesting the way that over time and with different denominations, we approach prayer. Okay that is very obscure. What I am saying is that in Jewish tradition, although room is left for spontaneous prayer, the back bone to a prayerful life is through liturgical prayer.

Liturgical=of or characterized by ceremony

So I guess the idea is that a fixed order of prayer and content demands personal commitment to prayer as a discipline. "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."

So I'm thinking about this the other night and trying to process how to insert a bit of "rote" prayer into my life. I start with the Lord's Prayer since really, it is the only example of prayer in the scriptures that I have memorized. Come to think of it, I did have a little trouble with the ...
forgive us our (debts, transgressions, sins) as we have forgiven (our debtors, those who transgressor against us, have sinned against us). See my confusion. Anyway, what I did notice is that you do seem to enter into a tranquil place during this ritual. So I was really excited about this process.
Then, by divine appointment, I turned in my "Devotional Classics" for the day to an excerpt from John Baillie on Morning Prayer. Ironic? Nope...Divine!

He says a different prayer for every day of the week. I LOVE the prayer from Monday so my plan is to memorize it and use it:

Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of You, let my first impulse be to worship You, let my first speech be Your name, let my first action be to kneel before You in prayer.
For Your Perfect wisdom and perfect goodness;
For the love with which you love mankind;
For the love with which you love me;
For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life;
For the indwelling of Your Spirit in my heart;
For the sevenfold gifts of Your Spirit;
I praise and worship You, O Lord.
Yet let me not, when this morning prayer is said, think my worship ended and spend the day in forgetfulness of You. Rather from these moments of quietness let light go forth, and joy, and power, that will remain with me through all the hours of the day;
Keeping me chaste in thought;
Keeping me temperate and truthful in speech;
Keeping me faithful and diligent in my work;
Keeping me humble in my estimation of myself;
Keeping me honorable and generous in my dealings with others;
Keeping me loyal to every hallowed memory of the past;
Keeping me mindful of my eternal destiny as a child of Yours.
Through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen

What do you think?