Celtic & Christian Prayer Books

Prayer is at the core of our relationship with God. It's how we communicate and commune with him. More simply stated it's how we talk to God and visit with him. On a grander note it's how we come into the presence of the Almighty Creator of the universe.

Do we fall on our knees and tremble, do we stride in boldly, do we chit-chat about our day, vent our frustrations, pour out our heart, sing for joy?? Yes, we do all of these things.

But how, in what form or manner, should our prayers be adressed to God?? Some of you come from backgrounds and traditions that emphasize formal prayer. That is "official" prayers written by others that you would pray alone or corporately in public worship.

There are many benefits to this type of prayer. First off it gives you an example to follow. This is what the disciples wanted when they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.That prayer,The Lord's Prayer,Matthew 6:9-13, is probably one of the first prayers you learned,perhaps just after Now I lay me down to sleep . It may be the only formal prayer you know.

Secondly, there are times when words fail us due to grief,illness or we just plain don't feel like praying though we know we should. This is an excellent time to use formal prayers, they give you an anchor and help you maintain the discipline of daily prayer.

Third, the prayers of others bring to our hearts and minds new ways of looking at things and new ideas. They also help us to realize how very much alike we all are in our need for God. Praying these prayers affirms the communion of the saints. One caution though, it's easy to tune out when saying formal prayers. To mumble through the words, a rote repetition of so many high sounding but meaningless words.

You must make these prayers your own. Substitute "I", "me" and "my", for "we", "us" and "our" when praying alone. If a phrase of the prayer strikes a chord within you don't rush on to finish but take a moment to linger over that word or phrase, ponder, wonder, add a few of your own thoughts and words. Just as the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath, so formal prayer is made to help us enter into the presence of God, not carry out a vain repetition of antiquated words and ideas.

Finally, many of these prayers are astoundingly beautiful and will lift your soul and spirit to the sublime.

It seems like such a simple thing to pray, but somehow it gets pushed side, forgotten, squeezed out by life's demands.

Yet, it is the one thing that will feed, strengthen and nurture your inner person making you better equipped to face what life throws at you.

Prayer is also the way we gain God's perspective on the situations at hand, helping to make sense out of what often seem like senseless troubles and trials. It is also the time when we can just love HIM, thank him, praise him. It is then we focus on THE GOOD, for he alone is good, and that time in his presence no matter how brief can be enough to counter-act the evil and the ugly we see all around us.

To help you get praying I have a few prayer books to suggest. First there's the Book of Common Prayer that Anglicans have been using for ages. There's the old 1662 version if you love that King James style English.

There are newer versions, and a host of books about the Book of Common Prayer to guide you and help you in its use. You don't have to actually be Anglican to use this book. It's a classic book of prayer, with the majority of the prayers acceptable to most Christians.

Next, is a wonderful anthology that I use quite often, 2000 Years of Classic Christian Prayers. This is a well organized book, that draws from many sources. You'll be able to find many favorites in this collection.

Memorizing some of these classic prayers will also be very helpful. In the same way that memorizing Scripture is. The words will be at your disposal whenever and where ever you need them. That will help you carry out Paul's instruction to "pray without ceasing".

On one side of the coin we have formal prayer on the other extemperaneous prayer, prayers that you pray in your own words, off the top of your head and from the depths of your heart.

This includes things like "converstional prayer" when a group of three or four people will pray aloud together someone beginning with a short prayer and another picking up on that particular thought and then adding something and on it goes back an forth among the participants until there's nothing left to say and someone says Amen.

This kind of informal prayer is the heritage of many post-reformation, "low-church" denominations. Baptists, Quakers, Pentecostals, and most Evangelical denominations. It has it's own benefits. Revelance is one, you pray in your own words about the things on your heart, it's extremely personal.

This type of prayer also helps to build an intimate relationship with God. It also allows you to direct your prayers specifically to the Father, to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit. There's less chance of prayer time becoming rote and stale. On the otherhand it can often feel directionless and rambling.

Who among us hasn't been at a worship service or prayer meeting and struggled to pay attention as someone droned on with a well intentioned but disorganized and lengthy prayer.

My suggestion is that whatever method of prayer your used to, switch to the other for a while. Change is good. Also keep in mind that Jesus gave us the example of both types of prayer. He taught his disciples the formal Lord's Prayer, but we also have Jesus own personal conversational prayers recorded in John 17 for example. So both types of prayer are biblical and beneficial to your spiritual growth.

Is it possible to pray without using words?? I think so. I think any time we engage in an activity that reflects the image of God in us we pray.

Creating, caring, singing, loving all those activities and many others are forms of prayer. Augustine said that "he who sings prays twice".

Today I prayed a long time. This morning on my walk I cried out to God and wrestled with some serious faith issues. I've been praying for 14 years for healing for my son. His disability is a heavy burden for him and our whole family.

It's difficult, it's exhausting and the future could hold some more very, very serious isssues. Does God hear? How can this possibly be something God would allow, even ordain. Will there ever be healing, relief in this life or must we wait for our bliss on the other side of the veil. Am I just whining, surley there are others who suffer worse. Do I have the faith to trust God? Will God only give me grace to carry on or will he graciously heal my son.

How can this trial conform me to the image of Jesus Christ...it seems to only make me doubt, get angry, frustrated and exhausted. So many questions and wrestlings. If it weren't for the story of the widow and the unrighteous judge I would have given up praying for this long ago. But we are commanded to continue to pray. Ask, seek knock. I'm currently using a battering ram on the gates of heaven.

Those were my prayers with words.

Then I spent the afternoon praying without words. I went out to the beach and painted. Driving to the beach I was admiring the new spring growth on the trees, and for a moment the sun flickered over the tree tops and there was a flash of a feeling inside me as if everything in the whole universe were right.

I know that was God feeding my soul and binding up my wounds. For the next four hours I prayed by painting, and I came home with hope.

This is a prayer I've prayed often. It's one I cherish and have made my own. I share it here in hopes that someone else will make it their own.

God, make me brave for life;
Oh, braver than this.
Let me straighten after pain,
as a tree straightens after the rain,
shining and lovely again.

God, make me brave for life;
much braver than this.
As the blown grass lifts,
let me rise, from sorrow with quiet eyes
knowing Thy way is wise.

God, make me brave;
life brings such blinding things.

Help me to keep my sight;
Help me to see aright
That out of dark comes light.

author unknown

Consider this passage of scripture: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverence. Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all wihtout finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed about by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from hr Lord; he is a double minded man unstable in all he does. James:1:2-8

The first thing I notice about this passage is that it focuses on the trials we all face in life. In a bad situation even the aethist is likely to turn to prayer. Crisies drive us toward God.

The second thing I learn is that God indeed allows difficulties in our lives to test our faith. Think of an athlete, a body builder. He can lift 200lbs. comfortably now after months of working at it. What's the next thing his trainer does? He adds some more weight to test the bodybuilders strength and further develop it.

So it goes in our spiritual life. We're handling our lives in a Christlike way for the most part, loving our families, working diligently at our jobs, ministering in the church, keeping our temper under control, remembering to thank, praise and pray....and then! God adds a little more "weight" to develop our faith.

This testing produces perserverence. What exactly is scripture driving at here. I think it means continuing to believe in God, and know and understand him as good and loving and and to draw comfort, strength and peace that passes human understanding during a crisis or ongoing severe situation.

Job is a classic example of this. Every conceivable tragedy had befallen him and yet he stubbornly held onto God. Even his wife advised him to "curse God and die", but he clung to God in all his sorrow, pain and confusion. That's perserverence. Job, by the way is fully restored and blessed beyond what he formerly had. We often say "oh, so and so has the patience of Job", another spiritual cliche I dislike. Patience denotes passivity, just sitting there and allowing yourself to suffer through something without raising an objection. That's not what Job did!! He questioned and even challenged God, but always held on to his faith. That's perserverence... a lot more active than patience!

To struggle, to wrestle, to question, to cry out, to vent...but never lose your faith...that's perserverence. Those intense times with God make you mature and complete. There's only one person I know of who was mature and complete in his humainty and that is Jesus. So ultimately God's goals for testing our faith have to do with raising us to the level of a mature and complete person bearing his image and likeness.

Now, here comes the interesting part about the prayer that's always answered with a resounding YES! Wisdom. If anyone lacks wisdom he/she should ask God, and he will give it to you generously, guarenteed! In trials and tribulations and all difficult circumstances one of the most desperate needs we have is knowing what to do.

From the immense life and death situations like "Do we take our child who's been irrepairably damaged in a car accident off life support or not?" to situations of lesser degree "Should I quit my job and start my own business?" to the much smaller stuff. If we just knew what to do we would experience much relief.

But wisdom is an interesting gift. You really won't know if you had it and exercised it without hindsite. I believe that's why James emphasis the need to believe and not doubt that God has indeed given you wisdom. It's an exercise or test of your faith.

If God had guaranteed to give wealth to anyone who asked that would be easy. A check from Publishers Clearing House Sweepsstakes would show up in your mailbox and you'd know that God delivered.

But wisdom....that requires you to decide and act and trust, and it might be a while before you know if you really did do the right thing. God's ultimate goal for us is not always release from our struggles but restoring our natures to their pre-fall glorious perfection. The trials are just a way to get you there. Problem is that on this earth our problems often eclipse the glory we should be striving for.

Our needs are pressing and our human nature wants relief right now and would forego the future glory if we could have what we want right now. Rather like Esau selling his birthright for a pot of stew. Interestingly it was his brother Jacob who wrestled with "THE angel" to secure a blessing.

God lovingly keeps his eye on the goal though and uses everthing to restore our nature that has been damaged and poisoned by sin. Receiving wisdom is itself an exercise of faith, but one with a guarantee making it easier to receive and believe.

So today if any of you lacks wisdom as I do this day, pray, ask God, believe, use all of your heart, soul and mind and act. Trust God and move forward, you'll be wise God guarantees it.

Celtic Christianity is somewhat of a misnomer. It's not a different kind of Christianity, it is simply the way Christianity developed and took shape in a geographic area (Britian, the most remote province of the Roman Empire) without much influence from the rest of the Christian world. Christianity arrived in Britain in the first few centuries AD. Soon afterward,the Roman Empire began to collapse (it was sacked by the visigoths in 410AD) and it withdrew it's troops and influence from Britain. After that, there was no longer any regular contact between the newly begun church in Britain and the rest of the church in the West. Therefore, the church had an opportunity to grow in a unique way and it reatined many of the cultural elements of the Celts. Celtic Christianity upholds all of the central orthodox Christian beliefs as stated in the Nicene Creed. For example, God as creator, the trinity, the Virgin Birth, Christ as both fully human and fully divine, the crucifixation as the atonement for sin, the bodily ressurection of Jesus, the ascention, the communion of saints, the holy spirit, the second coming.

Where it becomes unique is in the areas it emphasizes and the way in which different elements are viewed and expressed. Celtic Christianity places a great deal of focus on the beauty and sancitity of God's creation and the trinitarian nature of God. There is also a strong belief in God's protection in our lives.

The books I recommend are ones that I own and have use over the years. I find great strength, comfort and insight in them and I hope you will too.