Good Friday afternoon, everyone……!

And WELCOME to the 19th day of May in 2017…!

TODAY I WAS THINKING ABOUT the power of prayer, and I was remembering the very first prayer I ever learned as a child.

It went something like this:

‘Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. I Pray the Lord My Soul to Keep. And If I Die Before I Wake, I Pray the Lord My Soul to Take”

Growing up in the wilds of northern British Columbia, for years I always believed that nobody but me and my mother, who taught me that prayer, ever heard it before.

Imagine my surprise to learn, in later years, as I served and ministered to various congregations in British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta, that the same prayer I had learned as a child was also the very same prayer that many others had learned when they, too, were being taught to pray….!

‘Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. I Pray the Lord My Soul to Keep. And If I Die Before I Wake, I Pray the Lord My Soul to Take”

And therein lies, perhaps, the most important lesson we might learn about prayer….

Prayers and praying….unites us not only to God, but also to each other.,

Prayers and praying unites us not only to divinity, but also to our shared humanity.

Two weeks ago., I was conducting the Service of Worship at St. Paul’s United Church in Hardisty, Alberta.

We had reached that point in the service where the children in the congregation were gathered to hear their own special message before retiring for Sunday School, and I had asked them to join me in reciting the very first prayer they had ever learned.

Imagine my joy to hear members of the congregation also joining in…

Joining in…….uninvited….unannounced,…unrehearsed…unafraid….. unpraticed….unashamed…..

‘Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. I Pray the Lord My Soul to Keep. And If I Die Before I Wake, I Pray the Lord My Soul to Take”

Sometimes….Sometimes…..it’s only when we use the words others have given us…..and taught us….

Only then does the real  praying begin….

Blessings,  Rev. Steve

(The Rev. Stephen Haughland)