How often do you pray or meditate? - PhillyBlog

peacemover · #1 (**permalink**) 12-17-2004, 11:32 AM

The cover story from this week's issue of U.S. News and World Report is on the topic of prayer. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Quote:

Science & Society
The power of prayer
for the meek and mighty, saint and scoundrel, an undeniable urge to reach out to a greater being
By Jeffery L. Sheler

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/0...c/20prayer.htm

A pierced and tattooed man quietly bows his head at a noisy lunch counter. A child in pink pajamas kneels at her bedside and recites a familiar blessing. A baseball player crosses himself as he steps to the plate on national television. A white-haired woman lights a candle and weeps silently into her handkerchief for her dying husband. A dark-suited minister prays for peace on Earth, and the congregation in one voice cries out, "Amen."

Prayer has become familiar terrain in modern America. It is woven into the daily rhythms of life, its ethos embedded in the public and private experiences of millions. Indeed, a recent Roper poll found that nearly half of all Americans said that they pray or meditate every day--far more than those who regularly participate in religious services.

Over the centuries, its practitioners have included saints and scoundrels, skeptics and believers, the meek and the mighty--people of every creed and culture and of every station in life who, whether out of pious faith or primal fear, have reached out to a reality greater than themselves.

Prayer has been called "the native language" of the soul--the universal expression of an innate human desire to make contact with the divine. The 16th-century Christian mystic St. Teresa of Avila described prayer in its sublimity as "an intimate friendship, a frequent conversation held alone with the Beloved." An Islamic proverb states that to pray and to be Muslim are synonymous. And in Hinduism, devotion to prayer is seen as a route to ecstasy.

And yet while religious traditions throughout history have sought to define, categorize, and systematize it, prayer is hardly the private domain or even the product of organized religion. As James P. Moore observes in his forthcoming book, One Nation Under God: The History of Prayer in America : "Long before Moses parted the Red Sea, before Buddha described the path toward nirvana, before Christ died on the cross, and before Mohammed revealed the message of the Koran, there was prayer."

Prayer in some primitive form has almost certainly existed since humankind first acquired language. The earliest recorded prayers, experts say, are found in 4,500-year-old Sumerian inscriptions from Mesopotamia. Yet even those may be predated by prehistoric cave drawings that some believe were intended to invoke unknown gods for help in the hunt. Centuries before religion arrived on the scene, Donald Spoto explains in his new book, In Silence: Why We Pray , there was "a sense of the Beyond that seems to have been as instinctive as breathing, sleeping, and eating. Conscious of their connection to that Beyond, and evidently aware that a relationship could be established with it, people expressed their needs, wishes, and reverence."

. . . (click on the link for full article)

SurfDog · #2 (**permalink**) 01-18-2005, 04:15 PM

A lot depends on what is going on in my life ...

peacemover · #3 (**permalink**) 01-19-2005, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BGAndersen

A lot depends on what is going on in my life ...

That seems to be quite common. In the past, what sort of events or circumstances may have led you to pray or meditate, if I may ask?

For me, I try to start and end every day with prayer and meditation, but there are a lot of days where I get so busy with all my committments, that my prayer time either gets cut short or occasionally skipped- like the days when I come home after going all day and just have to crash and go right to sleep.

For me, it helps me stay centered, relaxed and at peace with myself, God, and the world.

SurfDog · #4 (**permalink**) 01-28-2005, 05:55 PM

Times of joy and sadness - It seems like the times I less likely to pray when things are neither good nor bad. The neutrality of the situation reflects the neutrality of my mood.

mikeg · #5 (**permalink**) 01-28-2005, 06:41 PM

When Cardinal Bevilaqua (sp) retired, I read an interesting interview of his, where he admitted that he too, gets distracted in the middle of his prayers. He said that each time he refocused back on praying, he considered it an affirmation in his committment to being faithful, and that actually made me feel good b/c I can't seem to finish my prayers, when I do pray, without outside thoughts coming in...

peacemover · #6 (**permalink**) 01-29-2005, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeg

When Cardinal Bevilaqua (sp) retired, I read an interesting interview of his, where he admitted that he too, gets distracted in the middle of his prayers. He said that each time he refocused back on praying, he considered it an affirmation in his committment to being faithful, and that actually made me feel good b/c I can't seem to finish my prayers, when I do pray, without outside thoughts coming in...

That is a very honest, and human admission... I definitely need to refocus frequently when I pray- I find my mind wandering to events of the day or other concerns and need to remember sometimes "to be still and know that the Lord is God" as the Psalmist writes...

That, I believe is where all significant renewal in our lives begins- in prayer, meditation, and/or the realization that the world does not revolve around us...

View Poll Results: How often do you pray and/or meditate?
several times a day	2	14.29%
once a day	0	0%
several times a week	1	7.14%
once a week	2	14.29%
only on special occasions	1	7.14%
only when I have a need or crisis	3	21.43%
rarely	3	21.43%
never	2	14.29%
Voters: 14. You may not vote on this poll

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Faith in the Workplace	peacemover	Spirituality & Faith	16	11-09-2004 07:47 PM