Now I lay me down to sleep.....

[imroc]

Being raised as a mixture of mainly baptist and pentecostal, I was taught the little prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I shall die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I’m sure most all of you heard or even prayed this very prayer as you layed yourself down to sleep. I was taught the “Once Saved Always Saved” doctrine and I never truly believed it even after my baptism when I went forward and professed my faith sometime in my “age of accountability”. In a way, wouldn’t this very prayer contradict the OSAS doctrine, if supposedly I was saved by the profession? I know that it may seem rather childish to pray such a prayer at the age of accountability, but I hold onto that prayer dearly, with a more grown-up spin. Also, according to my original belief system, wouldn’t that qualify as a repetitious prayer? And just like praying the Rosary, couldn’t it supposedly have the possibility of being a “vain” repetitious prayer over time? Just as the Rosary, I will never find that prayer to be in vain. I just don’t understand how anybody could consider a prayer to be “vain” as a Christian, otherwise…why would we even bother praying?! I guess, even if we were to recite any Psalms or even Hymns for that matter, it could have the potential to be a vain repetition as well. I guess I don’t understand how many anti-catholics can claim that just because a prayer can be repetitious, that it has to be vain…

Just some thoughts that came into my mind recently.

 

[exoflare]

I would also be interested to know how Protestants define this sort of “repetition” they accuse Catholics of in regard to how God sees things, since it is true that “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day”.

Since to God time is no object like it is with us, why should he not see a prayer said every night as any less repetitious than a prayer said every few seconds (i.e. the Rosary)?

 

[Unfinished]

exoflare:

I would also be interested to know how Protestants define this sort of “repetition” they accuse Catholics of in regard to how God sees things, since it is true that “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day”.

Since to God time is no object like it is with us, why should he not see a prayer said every night as any less repetitious than a prayer said every few seconds (i.e. the Rosary)?

No idea.

Revelation 4:8
Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

Never stop? Now that is repetition.

Even Jesus did it.

Matthew 26:43-44

Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

I think what this shows us it is is not what we are saying, but our intent. When we pray the Rosary we don’t just repeat the words as if saying 50 Hail Marys is gonna get us more “credit” than saying just one. We are meditating on God, making petitions, etc.

Adam

 

[mercygate]

imroc:

Being raised as a mixture of mainly baptist and pentecostal, I was taught the little prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I shall die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I’m sure most all of you heard or even prayed this very prayer as you layed yourself down to sleep. I was taught the “Once Saved Always Saved” doctrine and I never truly believed it even after my baptism when I went forward and professed my faith sometime in my “age of accountability”. In a way, wouldn’t this very prayer contradict the OSAS doctrine, if supposedly I was saved by the profession? I know that it may seem rather childish to pray such a prayer at the age of accountability, but I hold onto that prayer dearly, with a more grown-up spin. Also, according to my original belief system, wouldn’t that qualify as a repetitious prayer? And just like praying the Rosary, couldn’t it supposedly have the possibility of being a “vain” repetitious prayer over time? Just as the Rosary, I will never find that prayer to be in vain. I just don’t understand how anybody could consider a prayer to be “vain” as a Christian, otherwise…why would we even bother praying?! I guess, even if we were to recite any Psalms or even Hymns for that matter, it could have the potential to be a vain repetition as well. I guess I don’t understand how many anti-catholics can claim that just because a prayer can be repetitious, that it has to be vain…

Just some thoughts that came into my mind recently.

I dare anybody to challenge the theological soundness of “Now I lay me down to sleep!”

Catholic Priests, Religious and monastics put an “adult spin” on it every night at Compline when they pray: “May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.”

Children who did not pray “Now I lay me down to sleep” sometimes were taught the first stanza of a beautiful childrens’ hymn by Charles Wesley:

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look upon a little child;
Pity my simplicity,
Suffer me to come to Thee.

 

[Pjs2ejs]

The prayer has been changed.

“Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
The angels watch me through the night,
Until I wake in morning light, Amen.”

There are some stuffed animals who pray this when you push their belly. I guess the dying in their sleep was a little too scary.

Unfinished- Great comments on repetitive prayers

 

[Della]

exoflare:

I would also be interested to know how Protestants define this sort of “repetition” they accuse Catholics of in regard to how God sees things, since it is true that “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day”.

Since to God time is no object like it is with us, why should he not see a prayer said every night as any less repetitious than a prayer said every few seconds (i.e. the Rosary)?

So true! Have you ever listened to the prayers of Evangelical/Pentecostals? It’s, “Father God” this and “Father God” that. Also, they repeat certain phrases over and over again, such as, “Alleluia” or “Praise God” or “Jesus, Jesus,” etc. Isn’t this repetition?

The vain repetition Jesus was talking about was to pagan gods who may or may not be listening so the person had to address them again and again in an effort to wake them or call them to them or get them to notice their prayer. We know that God hears us all the time, so that sort of repetition isn’t necessary. It’s like modern day Shintoists who clap three times to awaken the gods.

What we and the Evangelicals/Pentecostalists are doing is quite different. We are merely repeating phrases out of love and devotion the way one expresses one’s love for one’s children or spouse, “I love you, I love you, I love you!” or repeats the name of a loved one in order to dwell on it and meditate on it.

 

[love4mary]

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, thy love go with me all the night, and wake me with thy morning light.”…,

My children and I pray this every nite, including the “Angel of God my guardian dear” prayer.

 

[Dorothy]

Prayers that are prayed with attention and from the heart can never be labeled with the term “vain repetition”.

Vain repetition would be those who pray mindlessly without paying attention to what they are saying.

 

[katewithak]

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, thy love go with me all the night, and wake me with thy morning light.”…,

My children and I pray this every nite, including the “Angel of God my guardian dear” prayer.

When I was a kid we said the Rosary, Now I lay me down to sleep, and Angel of God…
We also sang in catechism every week, Jesus loves me, this I know, cause the Bible tells me so.
Does this make me a Protestant? Or a confused Catholic? Or uttering vain repetitous prayer? However what we prayed was
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray my soul the Lord to take. A little different, but I still pray it.

 

[imroc]

Pjs2ejs:

The prayer has been changed.

“Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
The angels watch me through the night,
Until I wake in morning light, Amen.”

There are some stuffed animals who pray this when you push their belly. I guess the dying in their sleep was a little too scary.

Unfinished- Great comments on repetitive prayers

One of my daughters has a little lamb with an halo that say’s that little prayer. Cute little thing. Thanks everybody.

 

[mercygate]

Ahh. Politically correct night prayers that don’t frighten the little kiddies with thoughts of death.

Aargh.

I believe that early awareness of the fragility of life enables kids to accept death as a part of life when they get older – not that we shove death in their faces, but that we help our kids understand that there IS such a thing and that it will one day touch someone we love and eventually our selves.

For Christians, whose every breath tends toward that great moment when we close our eyes in death in the hope of entering life in Christ, death should not be an alien concept, even at an early age.

 

[Dorothy]

mercygate:

Ahh. Politically correct night prayers that don’t frighten the little kiddies with thoughts of death.

Aargh.

I believe that early awareness of the fragility of life enables kids to accept death as a part of life when they get older – not that we shove death in their faces, but that we help our kids understand that there IS such a thing and that it will one day touch someone we love and eventually our selves.

For Christians, whose every breath tends toward that great moment when we close our eyes in death in the hope of entering life in Christ, death should not be an alien concept, even at an early age.

Yes! We need to nurture our children’s confidence in the goodness and love of God; we should not be shielding them from reality because of our own fears.

 

[asquared]

Now I lay me down to sleep, actually has a Catholic viewpoint, one that I was taught in Catholic school, that we should at all times be ready to die, and be in the state of grace, which is what this prayer asks. We teach our children the Angel of God prayer as their first prayer, and I have a pink bear with wings that says it (love those bears).

by the way, very small children are usually not afraid of death, and find it fascinating and exciting, it is usually as they get older, old enough to “be scared”, to hear stories from other kids, or to suffer the death of a beloved relative or even a pet, that the fear comes in. Think of James Agee’s “A Death in the Family”, and Margaret O’Brien’s character in “Meet me in St. Louis”

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side to light, to guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

On the topic of “repetetive” prayer, I notice that guest preachers who do the intercessory prayer segement daily on our Christian radio station put “Father God” at the beginning of each sentence, practically with each breath. I am not to sure about all the “community churches” and non-denominational names for their congregations, but would I assume someone who does not refer to Jesus in their spontaneous prayer at all, but only to Father God, does not have a full Trinitarian belief?

 

[imroc]

asquared:

Now I lay me down to sleep, actually has a Catholic viewpoint, one that I was taught in Catholic school, that we should at all times be ready to die, and be in the state of grace, which is what this prayer asks. We teach our children the Angel of God prayer as their first prayer, and I have a pink bear with wings that says it (love those bears).

by the way, very small children are usually not afraid of death, and find it fascinating and exciting, it is usually as they get older, old enough to “be scared”, to hear stories from other kids, or to suffer the death of a beloved relative or even a pet, that the fear comes in. Think of James Agee’s “A Death in the Family”, and Margaret O’Brien’s character in “Meet me in St. Louis”

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side to light, to guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

On the topic of “repetetive” prayer, I notice that guest preachers who do the intercessory prayer segement daily on our Christian radio station put “Father God” at the beginning of each sentence, practically with each breath. I am not to sure about all the “community churches” and non-denominational names for their congregations, but would I assume someone who does not refer to Jesus in their spontaneous prayer at all, but only to Father God, does not have a full Trinitarian belief?

So true! Have you ever listened to the prayers of Evangelical/Pentecostals? It’s, “Father God” this and “Father God” that. Also, they repeat certain phrases over and over again, such as, “Alleluia” or “Praise God” or “Jesus, Jesus,” etc. Isn’t this repetition?

You guys are so right! I noticed quite a few times when I would tune into a protestant radio show that the use of “Father God” is used at the beginning and ending of sentences and such. Not that I’m slamming them at all, it’s probably a great expression of the reverence. It almost seems that they have trained themselves to replace the “ummm…'s” and “uhhhh…s” that most people use in regular conversation

God Bless!

imroc