Gratitudinal Assistance

November 17, 2018

When I was growing up, written prayers were not considered real prayers to us Baptists. A good Baptist didn’t need someone else’s prayer, and considered prayer books and liturgies to be remnants of a corrupt ecclesiastical system. We prayed our own prayers, thank you! And we didn’t follow written liturgies that one could recite mindlessly. Of course, we assumed that’s exactly what happened; it never occurred to us that the liturgy could bring life and vitality to worship. 

I remember the first time I experienced—I mean REALLY experienced—liturgical worship. I’d had my fill of the kind of liturgy my Baptist upbringing abhorred, but when invited by a Franciscan lay brother to an upper room in the Old Town of Chicago, I experienced the power of people who knew the liturgy, who stood around a rough-hewn table singing and praying it with tears streaming down their faces as they worshipped the Christ whose Presence they acknowledged and celebrated. Those written prayers and words of affirmation by the priest allowed—no, propelled—them to pray more deeply and worship more authentically than had they merely spoke whatever words came to mind.

Once in a great while, Linda will say, “I can’t think of anything for dinner tonight. Let’s go out to eat.” Mind you, it doesn’t happen often; Linda likes to cook and loves being home. But when those rare moments come, we get in the car and drive to whatever restaurant we’ve chosen. We order from a prepared menu, the dinner is served, we enjoy it and pay the tab and the tip. We don’t head for the kitchen to clean up. 

Written prayers are like that. Sometimes we just don’t have the words, so we use what someone else has prepared, relishing the taste of phrases different from our own, enjoying what is set before us. And we don’t even have to pick up the tab! Our souls are nourished beyond what we could have provided ourselves.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I think gratitude is much like prayer. We run out of things for which to give thanks, not because there is a lack of them, but because there is a lack in us. I started writing these nightly meditations using a list prepared beforehand. I was unskilled in thanksgiving and needed help. Even today I sometimes get stuck, feeling like my poor words are too repetitive or too mediocre. I fail to see the countless blessings and acts of God all around me. I turn to my list (liturgy?) of suggestions and am almost always rewarded with a new way of seeing life and giving thanks. I am thankful tonight for the invaluable assistance given me by Ann Voskamp and her “Joy Dare” calendar. It literally transformed this old melancholic cynic into a man of joy and peace.