America letter # 7. Prayer class.
December 2, 2007
Dear friends,
The Sundays are not always very holy at the end of the semester, but when you study theology, it is always a chance to find something spiritual to read or write on a Sunday, and in that way give yourself the excuse that this is not homework, just an extra spiritual practice after church…
Today I have written a paper for a class about prayer. This is a class not taught at Wartburg, but at University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS). UDTS and Wartburg have a good partnership, and the students at each seminary can take up to 6 credits at the other seminary each semester. I take only this class there, 1 credit, which means that I walk over to the university every Tuesday evening, a twenty minutes walk from Wartburg.
We have tried five different models of prayer in the prayer class, each model has lasted for two weeks, and the homework has been to pray the model of the week every day and then write a reflection paper with the experiences.
The first model was the Divine Office, a model I know well and like well. The example was St. Benedict. I find that something important is missing when I pray the Divine Office alone, but I start to get used to it now. To have a community to pray with was anyway good when I had that opportunity last week. I have continued to pray the Divine Office, morning and night most days, after the two first weeks were over, and I appreciate the rhythm it gives the day.
The two next weeks we prayed the Jesus prayer, the Orthodox prayer on the breath: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” when breathing in, “have mercy on me, a sinner” when breathing out, or shorter variations. The example was the Pilgrim. This prayer will help you to pray without ceasing. I do not think my aim is always to have this prayer on my mind, or in my heart which is actually the aim. But it is a good prayer to pray in between everything you do during a day. When prayer can be so simple, you can pray several times a day.
The third model was to pray the Psalms by writing. The example was Jean Calvin. UDTS is Presbyterian, and for a Lutheran having learnt to be critical to Calvin, it was nice to experience that he has something good to offer. I liked this kind of prayer! The prayer was commenting a Psalm by writing about it. This can certainly be done without praying, but it is possible to do it as prayer, and for a writer like me it was great to experience the possibilities in combining writing with praying. A variation was to rewrite the Psalms into poems or hymns, and I also liked this and found it fun. I could discover a few words speaking to me, and then write a song to God with them.
I have not enjoyed the two last models we have tried as much as the first three, a taste of the spiritual practices of Ignatius Loyola and Agnes Sanford’s prayer for healing. It has been important to realize though. Different persons like different kinds of prayer. Innate personality is more important than I had thought when it comes to preferences relating to spiritual practice. We have reflected in class, for which persons or when in life the different models of prayer might fit. Here we are not only educated to know the Bible or become theologians, but to be able to guide individuals in their wandering with God. I like that.
Greetings from Hanne.
Dear friends,
The Sundays are not always very holy at the end of the semester, but when you study theology, it is always a chance to find something spiritual to read or write on a Sunday, and in that way give yourself the excuse that this is not homework, just an extra spiritual practice after church…
Today I have written a paper for a class about prayer. This is a class not taught at Wartburg, but at University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS). UDTS and Wartburg have a good partnership, and the students at each seminary can take up to 6 credits at the other seminary each semester. I take only this class there, 1 credit, which means that I walk over to the university every Tuesday evening, a twenty minutes walk from Wartburg.
We have tried five different models of prayer in the prayer class, each model has lasted for two weeks, and the homework has been to pray the model of the week every day and then write a reflection paper with the experiences.
The first model was the Divine Office, a model I know well and like well. The example was St. Benedict. I find that something important is missing when I pray the Divine Office alone, but I start to get used to it now. To have a community to pray with was anyway good when I had that opportunity last week. I have continued to pray the Divine Office, morning and night most days, after the two first weeks were over, and I appreciate the rhythm it gives the day.
The two next weeks we prayed the Jesus prayer, the Orthodox prayer on the breath: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” when breathing in, “have mercy on me, a sinner” when breathing out, or shorter variations. The example was the Pilgrim. This prayer will help you to pray without ceasing. I do not think my aim is always to have this prayer on my mind, or in my heart which is actually the aim. But it is a good prayer to pray in between everything you do during a day. When prayer can be so simple, you can pray several times a day.
The third model was to pray the Psalms by writing. The example was Jean Calvin. UDTS is Presbyterian, and for a Lutheran having learnt to be critical to Calvin, it was nice to experience that he has something good to offer. I liked this kind of prayer! The prayer was commenting a Psalm by writing about it. This can certainly be done without praying, but it is possible to do it as prayer, and for a writer like me it was great to experience the possibilities in combining writing with praying. A variation was to rewrite the Psalms into poems or hymns, and I also liked this and found it fun. I could discover a few words speaking to me, and then write a song to God with them.
I have not enjoyed the two last models we have tried as much as the first three, a taste of the spiritual practices of Ignatius Loyola and Agnes Sanford’s prayer for healing. It has been important to realize though. Different persons like different kinds of prayer. Innate personality is more important than I had thought when it comes to preferences relating to spiritual practice. We have reflected in class, for which persons or when in life the different models of prayer might fit. Here we are not only educated to know the Bible or become theologians, but to be able to guide individuals in their wandering with God. I like that.
Greetings from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 8:04 PM
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