When We Pray: The Future of Common Prayer Paperback (381 pages) – Coventry Press 2020
by Stephen Burns & Robert Gribben (Editors)
The book originated collecting presentations for a symposium on The future of the prayer book tradition hosted by Stephen Burns and Robert Gribben at Trinitiy College Theological School in Parkville, Melbourne in 2018. Then others (myself included) had essays added to those contributions.
You can read my essay by clicking this link:
The LORD’s song in a foreign land
Common Prayer is like learning a new language
Stephen Burns is an Anglican priest. He is Professor of Liturgical and Practical Theology at Pilgrim Theological College, Melbourne. Robert Gribben is a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church in Australia. He is Professor Emeritus of the Uniting Church’s theological faculty in Melbourne and an honorary Research Fellow of the University of Divinity.
The book is divided into Part A The Prayer Book Tradition and Part B Liturgical Themes and Foci. The book looks at the historical tradition of common prayer, its current reality, and possible future expressions of it. You can see more of the contents via the link, I hope you enjoy and appreciate my essay, and I encourage you to purchase and reflect on the book.
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‘The story of the abbot’s cat helps.’
It’s interesting isn’t it, because to ‘pray from the heart’ presumably the only thing required is to connect with the holy spirit. Yet it so often becomes far-removed from that. And pedantic and seemingly petty somehow, missing the overall point.
I developed anxiety disorder after the last big flood here and found that some of the old prayers from my youth and the KJ bible, deep within my subconscious, helped very much in calming and grounding panic attacks. Though I will not rejoin the Catholic Church I don’t expect, I recently took to praying the rosary and thinking about the words and concepts therein.
It keeps coming back to me over and over- how the many parts inform the whole. How there must be a freedom in allowing people to access the holy spirit, and the underlying teachings of Jesus:
‘the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’ ( John 14 )
Thanks, Tracy – I think you are right; maintaining the same translation, praying the same texts, mean they seep into our bones. Easter Season Blessings.