Daily Meditation - Tuesday 29th. Jan. 2008 - FREE FORMS OF PRAYER

[BarbaraTherese]

DAILY MASS READINGS
usccb.org/nab/012908.shtml

Further Reflection
Tuesday: 29 January 2008 - Mark 3,31-35

My Comment: In our western culture free form expression is not at all familiar to us as a form of worship and personally my structured prayer times and silent prayer are of great importance and value to me. If I were alone in our beautiful Australian bush I may feel a sense of freedom I do not feel indoors and perhaps feel moved to be more free in my expression of prayer to The Lord.
Since I love singing to myself, sometimes in my prayer I will sing silently to The Lord one of the exquisite hymns I learnt as a child and especailly the hymns from my First Communion which I hold very dear- but that is about as “free moving” as I can get.
I feel this way, if I am to be more free in my expressions of prayer then The Lord will move me to it, meanwhile I am quite happy with the way things are - if I were not, then doubtless I would be moved to seek something more meaningful to me.
Be all that as it may, this is my personal preference, and it does not disturb me if others are more free in their expressions - may shock me a little in my western culture ways, but that is not necessarily a negative matter/bad thing. I think that we really do need to be able to allow others to be who they are and not conform to status quo / my own ways.

Meditation
here

Prayer can take many forms. Just consider the scene in today’s first reading, when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. He not only had many sacrifices offered, he also danced before God with childlike abandon! This probably wasn’t what most people were expecting of their king. They were probably surprised at his lack of decorum. Yet David was so filled with joy that he let all pretenses fall away and danced freely before the God who had been so good to him and his people.

Our prayer, too, can—and should—take many forms.

Don’t you sometimes feel like dancing before God in your prayer time? Go ahead! How about singing a song to him, something you just made up? If it seems appropriate, give it a try. What about marching around the room as a symbolic way of sharing in Jesus’ victory over sin and death? Or running through the forest, delighting in God’s gift of the created world? Or letting out a big belly laugh because the Lord has made you joyful? Or maybe falling prostrate before the Lord, saying the name of Jesus over and over again? These, and so many other forms of prayer, can be just as acceptable as sitting before God in long silence, praying the rosary, or just talking to God as familiarly as you would talk to your neighbor.

Sometimes, we can feel constrained by conventions and structured forms of prayer. Certainly, traditional, structured ways of prayer have their place and can be very powerful in helping us build up our relationship with God.

But God also wants us to feel free to express ourselves spontaneously

if we feel it is appropriate.

An unstructured expression of worship, love, or gratitude may very well help us break through to a deeper relationship with God.

Remember that God is your Father. He loves you as his very own child. Children are naturally spontaneous and free, and you can be this way before God. He delights in seeing his children coming before him in many different ways. Why not take a chance and become a little spontaneous as you let your Father know how much you love him?

“Jesus, as you rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, teach me also to express my joy and worship. You are great, O Lord, and I take delight in you!”