A form of prayer that most of us have been familiar with since childhood is praying a standard prayer and entering into its words.  In doing that we "tune in" to the prayer in the truest sense of the word.  When we do not do this our prayer can become empty babbling and we know how quickly that can happen.  Therefore, it is important to continue to practice "letting ourselves in", to tuning ourselves to pre-formulated prayers.

With the praying of set prayers which many generations have prayed before us and which perhaps Christians around the world of every confession have prayed, we join with an enormous community of prayer.  Our own prayer tunes in with the prayers of a world wide Christian community just as a violinist tunes the instrument to the pitch of the orchestra and in playing the single note makes a contribution to the whole.

Such "resonance of myself" with the prayers of the church of all times, all continents and all confessions, guards my prayer from false individualism and supplements free prayer for the inner health of a spiritual life.  Herein lies the meaning of the Prayer of the Hours which uses the Psalms to bring all of humanity's needs and longings before God.

In our first exercise we will enter into the Lord's Prayer which unites Christians beyond all boundaries:

Prayer meditation

- Lord's Prayer

- First suggestion: very slowly and very simply pray this prayer word for word and let each word resonate in you waiting for what comes .  Seek to keep your heart alert in order to listen for how it can resound to this word.
The slower this all happens the better.  With meditation the ground rule is: "Less is better than more."  Ignatius said, "It is not knowing much that satisfies the soul, rather it is the inward looking and savoring of things."

- Second suggestion:choose a single petition of the  Lord's Prayer on which to meditate.

- In your imagination see before you the generations that have prayed this prayer for nearly two thousand years... .How differently they may have experienced it. . Let yourself be drawn into this praying community, add your own concerns and receive your share of this communal prayer ...

- In the same way "see" before you Christians from different continents and let yourself be drawn into the community of their prayer... in the same way you  can "see" Christians of different churches and confessions...

Whoever prefers can use another basic prayer of the Christian tradition, for example, the Apostles Creed or the Gloria.  Let these become fruitful in the same ways suggested above.  Praying the thousand year old Pentecost Series is also meaningful and fruitful for this exercise.