How This Protestant Came to Love Written Prayers

"Holy Communion : The Quartermaster's Office in the Stern" - James McVey © IWM (Art.IWM ART 1402)

Last week, I talked about the crucifix. Twice, I mentioned the Sanctus, a historic prayer of the church. I first memorized the Sanctus in Latin back when I was in grade school but I did not come to love it until I was in college. My tradition eschewed written prayers, rejecting them as “vain repetitions.”

I was studying St. Anselm of Canterbury’s ontological argument for the existence of God in my college intro to philosophy course. The argument fascinated me because it utterly confused me. At the same time, quite “coincidentally,” I stumbled upon a volume of Anselm’s key works at a thrift store. Intrigued, I opened to the book when in which he laid out his famous argument. To my shock, Anselm’s book was in the form of a prayer, starting with a stunning, emotional chapter-long prayer. I will reproduce part of it here but the whole first chapter is worth your time and can be read here:

Teach me to seek thee, and reveal thyself to me, when I seek thee, for I cannot seek thee, except thou teach me, nor find thee, except thou reveal thyself. Let me seek thee in longing, let me long for thee in seeking; let me find thee in love, and love thee in finding.…I do not endeavor, O Lord, to penetrate thy sublimity, for in no wise do I compare my understanding with that; but I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, – that unless I believed, I should not understand.  

Anslem’s prayer, containing in it a profound awareness for his own fallenness and intense desire to seek and know God, resonated with my own heart. For the first time, I desired to pray what someone else had written. I wanted to seek God and know Him just as much as Anselm did and his words captured my heart-cry in a way my words just couldn’t. So, I began to explore and pray using written prayers.

Who: Praying with the Saints

Mentors are a necessary part of the Christian life. Indeed, I would daresay that many of us pattern our prayer lives after a trusted pastor, professor, or parent. In the same way, I found the prayer lives of the Saints beginning to mentor me. These great men and women of God had rich spiritual lives, lives to which their prayers attest. I began to adopt the language of their prayers and use their prayers as a jumping off point for my own spontaneous prayers. As I prayed with the Saints, they mentored me from the grave, shaping my faith life through their prayers, teaching me through their writings what and how and when to pray.

What: Praying Old Words

Sometimes, new words don’t cut it. It’s hard to know what or how to pray sometime. When I am in anguish over the brokenness in this world, facing a spiritual challenge, or praying for a friend in sorrow, the old words contained in those prayers can give voice to the emotions buried deep in my heart. It is a great comfort to me that my Christian ancestors faced the same challenges I do: temptation, death, anger, need. When I don’t know what to pray, old words are oftentimes better at expressing what I need to say than new words I try to invent on the fly. For instance, I have yet to find a prayer for times of death and bereavement better than the one contained in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (see Prayers for Family and Personal Life 55).

How: Praying Economically

As I prayed with the Saints, their historical prayers, especially those in the Book of Common Prayer, challenged my tendency toward unnecessary eloquence in my prayer life. Instead, they taught me to use only necessary, honest, heartfelt words. Economic prayers that say exactly what they mean can be a good deal more moving than flowery nonsense.

The Jesus Prayer from the Orthodox tradition is a prime example. In two sentences, it confesses the identity of Christ, asks for forgiveness, and recognizes one’s status as a sinner. Indeed, it takes more time to explain than pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” In just twelve words, it brings me before my Lord in contrition and returns me to my ordinary life, forgiven by His grace. It takes less than ten seconds to pray and has become the prayers I use most frequently.

When: Praying When I Don’t Want To

I don’t like confessing my sins. It’s a lot easier to pridefully see myself as somebody who has it all together. Written prayers like the Jesus prayer won’t let me get away with that. Every time I pray that, I am invited, encouraged, sometimes forced to confess that I am a sinner.

Furthermore, my prayers before using written prayers were often self-centered. “Lord, give me this and this and this and heal so-and-so, amen.” It’s a lot easier to selfishly focus on my demands before God. Historic prayers taught me the value of doxology, taking time to praise God during prayer. This is part of why the Sanctus became so special to me. As I noted last week, it is a prayer of confession and doxology.  

Praying written prayer is like the Saints of the past placing a hand on our shoulder and lovingly, quietly pointing us back to Jesus. “We’ve been down this road,” they say, “can we lend you a hand?” Are they necessary? No. Certainly, one can only pray spontaneous prayers. However, written prayers have a depth of knowledge and wisdom they taught me (and continue to teach me) who to pray with, what to pray, how to pray, and when to pray. They push me out of my complacent comfort zone and challenge me to live a life of greater holiness and devotion to Christ. And that’s why this Protestant loves written prayers.

What Now?

How might you implement written prayers into your prayer life? Easy! Pray written prayers! A good place to start might be the Lord’s Prayer or the Psalm’s, the Bible’s own written prayers. A next step might be the Jesus Prayer noted above. It’s easy to memorize and quick to pray. If you’re interested in diving into the deep end, check out a book of prayers like Prayers and Thanksgivings section of The Book of Common Prayer or St. Augustine’s Prayer Book. Most of all, remember that prayer is deeply personal. If a certain prayer type or book doesn’t cut it for you, try something else. Experiment, have fun, and see which prayers most resonate with, encourage, and challenge you.

Peace be with you,

James