Below please find the service that I have written for the scouts at camp. There may be some typos, but this will give you an idea of what the interfaith services that I run are like. This one is about improving prayer life. I may post some more in the future.
WELCOME: Hello, Thanks for coming out again. I hope that you enjoyed and were fulfilled by the outside ministers that I brought in yesterday. With that said, let’s go ahead and get started.
HYMN: Our opening hymn will be __________________________
OPENING PRAYER: Ever-loving God, your name is the greatest among us all. Thank you for this wonderful week at camp, for the safety and the fun, for the learning and the memories. We ask you to continue to bless us all as we finish out this week and go forward in the coming weeks. In all things that we do we ask you to keep us in your loving care. Amen
FIRST READING: Our first reading comes from the 3rd book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon
You must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever you shall
ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing you shall receive,
behold it shall be given unto you. Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name
SECOND READING: The second reading for today is from the traditional religion of Kenya in Africa.
Set me free, I entreat thee from my heart;
If I do not pray to thee with my heart,
Thou hearest me not.
If I pray to thee with my heart,
Thou knowest it and art gracious unto me.
THIRD READING: Our third reading is from the book Acts of the Apostles in the Bible
And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
FOURTH READING: The fourth reading comes from the letter of St. James in the Bible
Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him
sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the
church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of
the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord
will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that
you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
FIFTH READING: Our fifth reading comes from the Gospel of Luke in the Bible. This is right after the disciples had asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
REFLECTION:
Prayer, it is an important part in every faith. The readings from today demonstrate just a little bit about the scriptures relating to prayer.
Since I started seminary I often have had people talking to me about faith, I love that. One of the most common things that I hear from people is that when they try to pray they get distracted, or they don’t know how to pray. In fact, I had one of my friends e-mail me about that today. In this e-mail she said
“So, I find that lately it is very hard for my to concentrate and/or stay focused when I try to pray. I either lose my train of thought, cant focus on what I am trying to say, and mostly I feel so overwhelmed with the things I need to be thankful for and for everyone that I want to pray for that I feel I will be praying for days. Any advice?”
I have gotten e-mails along this line so often that yes, I do have some advice. In this I will talk to you about personal prayer, not the type at an organized service. The first point of advice is to keep going with what you are doing. The intent and desire to pray is itself a prayer and pleasing to God. Yes, you are going to get distracted in your prayer, but that may sometimes be God guiding you to what you need to pray for. In the Christian tradition we refer to the Holy Spirit guiding our prayer.
Don’t let every distraction lead you astray. Some of the distractions will actually lead you either away from prayer completely, or into praying for something that will be bad for you.
I think that the first step when one decides to pray is to ask God to guide your prayer and to be with you when you pray. Always ask for this grace.
A faithful person should pray constantly during the day, whenever anything comes up that is in need of God’s assistance, utter a small prayer to ask for it. When something good happens utter a small prayer to thank God for allowing it to happen, or causing it to happen. These types of prayers don’t need to have any sort of style, and others most likely won’t be able to tell that you are praying.
Often people are helped in prayer by repeating a simple traditional prayer. For many Christians this is the Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father that was taught by Jesus to his disciples. We heard this in our last reading today. For many Catholics this is praying an organized prayer such as the rosary, the simple repetitive nature of this allows your mind to flow to wherever the spirit of God takes it.
Set aside a special time or place for prayer. In my house or apartment I have almost always had a corner that I tend to go and sit in when I want some long meaningful prayer. I may set up a table with some items to help me focus on prayer. These items may be a picture of Jesus, or a bible, or my rosary, or readings on the faith. Any of these can be jumping off points to start the prayer. They can help me refocus when I get distracted. This place often has a candle in it, I like to light a candle because I can even get lost in the flickering little flame.
I think that personal prayer is often helped through attending formal prayer. In your church or whatever house of worship you may attend you can get focused and receive graces that will help guide you in your personal prayer later.
There is no set format for personal prayer, but I will give you an idea of the format that I tend to use before jumping off into wandering prayer. The first thing that I do is to address God. There are many ways to do this. I may start out with “Dear God” or “Loving God” or “Good and Gracious Lord” or some such address.
I follow the address up with a bit of praising God and thanking Him for the good in my life. This may take up most of the time, or it may be a few short thoughts. God is great, if we have our faith in Him, we should tell Him so. I use this time to count my blessings and know of great it is to be one of God’s creation and in the world with so much of His other creation.
After the praises and thanksgiving comes time to ask God for what we need or want. God knows our desires and needs, but we should be able to express them to him. Remember to ask God for forgiveness for your sins. We are all sinners who need this forgiveness. One thing that I always add to these requests is the thought that I only want this if it is God’s will that I have it. Don’t forget to ask God to take care of others, whether they be people you know or not.
I then close it with a statement expressing my confidence that God can do this all. This may be saying, “I ask this in your loving name” or “through Christ our Lord.” Use whatever is appropriate for you.
Here is an example of a simple prayer of mine, so you can see how I put this together.
Good and Gracious God, Thank you for this day that you have given to me, the ability to serve you and others. Thank you for my family and friends. I thank you for all the experiences I have had, fun and not. Please continue to bless me in all these ways and in the ways that I am not yet aware of. Please answer the prayers of all those who have asked me to pray for them and provide for those in need. I ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen
That was just an example of a prayer for me, yours may sound like that, or be different. After that sort of a prayer I spend time praying in more detail for those things that come to mind. I will let my mind wander and just be with God. It is pretty rare for anybody to get a direct voice in response to our prayers, but if you spend enough time in prayer you will be able to feel God answering your prayers.
INTENTIONS: Let us now join our prayers together to God. Please respond, Oh God, hear our prayer.
For the world, that all people may recognize God and communicate with Him… We Pray.
For our families, may their needs and prayers be answered according to God’s will… We Pray.
For us, that we will continue to grow in our prayer life, and our whole life loving God… We Pray.
CLOSING PRAYER:
God of us all. Thank you for this time to worship you and grow in our faith. We ask you to strengthen our faith going forward and to keep us in your loving care. We ask this in your loving name. Amen
HYMN: Our closing song will be _________________________________
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