Individual vs. Standard Prayer

Cino

Cino

Big Love! (Atheist mystic)
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Does your religion or tradition have standard prayers, perhaps collected in a prayer book?

Is individual, spontaneously formulated prayer a thing in your religion?

If you do both, how do you decide which type of prayer to say?
 
Cino said:
Does your religion or tradition have standard prayers, perhaps collected in a prayer book?

Is individual, spontaneously formulated prayer a thing in your religion?

If you do both, how do you decide which type of prayer to say?
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In Islam, we have two forms of prayer.
Salat, which is the highly formalized prayer, where exclusively passages of the Quran are recited. It always starts with the 1st Surah , then includes other passages from the Quran, chosen by the Imam in congregation, or individually. They are always recited in Arabic with a chant. You learn the passages with the melody (that is much easier to memorize), and there are traditional melodies as well (only a convention, not obligatory).

The other form is dua, the individual prayer. There are no prescriptions on it. You pray in the language of your choice, speak it or think it, share it or stay alone. There are also pre-formulated dua, but I don't use them.
 
talib-al-kalim said:
In Islam, we have two forms of prayer.
Salat, which is the highly formalized prayer, where exclusively passages of the Quran are recited. It always starts with the 1st Surah , then includes other passages from the Quran, chosen by the Imam in congregation, or individually. They are always recited in Arabic with a chant. You learn the passages with the melody (that is much easier to memorize), and there are traditional melodies as well (only a convention, not obligatory).

The other form is dua, the individual prayer. There are no prescriptions on it. You pray in the language of your choice, speak it or think it, share it or stay alone. There are also pre-formulated dua, but I don't use them.
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Catholic monks follow a similar pattern, with prescribed readings of the Psalms, and also personal prayer.

The daily Mass is also prescribed, with the same words and readings in every Catholic church anywhere in the world for the day
 
So which form, formal or spontaneous, do you all prefer?

Or maybe rather, what do you like about each of the two forms?
 
Cino said:
So which form, formal or spontaneous, do you all prefer?

Or maybe rather, what do you like about each of the two forms?
Click to expand...
Good to see you back. :)

I like both my salat (prescribed prayer), and dua ( invocation ).
In my local mosque, the Imam makes a congregational dua after Friday prayers.
It is not compulsory, and not everybody participates .. but I like it .. I like the feeling
of the congregation, all praying together, while the Imam addresses the "issues of the day".
i.e. He makes the dua audibly
 
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Cino said:
So which form, formal or spontaneous, do you all prefer?

Or maybe rather, what do you like about each of the two forms?
Click to expand...
In the case of the Catholic church, it is the monks who have preserved the Gospels and New Testament writings for 2000 years until the advent of the printing press, with Martin Luther and new Protestant churches. The New Testament writings are the shell of the nut, and the traditional church rites and rituals reflect the scriptures.

There will always be debates about the fine details but overall, without the monks there would be no Christianity, no gospels, no Jesus Christ. The monks have been the keepers of the flame for more than two millennia. Their unchanging prayers and rituals have preserved the inner truth, which individuals and new churches and all sorts of groups and religions and sects, inside and outside of Christianity may interpret in various ways.

Of course often they select and derive various meanings to suit themselves, but eventually the scriptures remain unchanged.

That to me is the value of ritualised prayer and religion. However eventually it comes around to my own individual contact with the higher power and the ‘divine assistance’ and it becomes clear that is not limited to one religion or faith.
 
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Cino said:
So which form, formal or spontaneous, do you all prefer?

Or maybe rather, what do you like about each of the two forms?
Click to expand...
While the church I most subscribe to has prayers....they often speak in a language for the conventional Christian and aren't for me.

We do open and close service with generic prayers but that is not what I think you were asking.

I think/believe you are asking regarding prayers for change, to alter some existing situation (weather, health, wealth, success etc)

If my assumption is wrong oh well I am blazing ahead with my answer.

Now that I said that in my head my answer was reformatted from a spontaneous uttering to the root of my thought which is simpler and more straightforward.

The Serenity Prayer is an invocation by the petitioner for wisdom to understand the difference between circumstances ("things") that can and cannot be changed, asking courage to take action in the case of the former, and serenity to accept in the case of the latter.

There are dozens of interpretations, many of them overly religious or invoking entities which I don't believe in....but there is also Mother Goose...

For every ailment under the sun
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.

For clarification, I don't pray to any.heavemly spirit to phydical.conditions on earth. I pray (focus) on either changing my perspective on a situation or my acceptance of reality or encourage myself to have the courage and wherewithal to physically do something about it.
 
Just an aside, and worth mentioning, I think, is that the Liturgy (Christian and, using the term loosely, I'd assume the same of any religion) is a prayer, rather than simply a thing in and during which prayers are said, although that is of course the case ... In that sense the Liturgy is both communal and individual in its entirety.
 
Good point, @Thomas!

Maybe I should have been more specific, something like, "spontaneous, improvised, extemporaneous prayer" instead of "individual".
 
St Thomas Aquinas said (and I paraphrase) when a carpenter misses the nail and hammers his thumb, and shouts out "Jesus Christ!" – he's not taking the Lord's name in vain, but in fact that's an 'ejaculatory prayer' (please take this pain away)!

St Thomas had a sense of humour, as well as humanity ...
 
You'd like this guy:
Br. David Steindl-Rast - Grateful.org

Brother David Steindl-Rast — 97 year-old author, scholar, and Benedictine monk — is beloved the world over for his enduring message about gratefulness as the true source of lasting happiness. Known to many as the “grandfather of gratitude,” Br. David has been a source of inspiration and spiritual friendship to countless leaders and luminaries around the world including Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton, and more. He has been one of the most important figures in the modern interfaith dialogue movement, and has taught with thought-leaders such as Eckhart Tolle, Jack Kornfield, and Roshi Joan Halifax. His wisdom has been featured in recent interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Krista Tippett, and Tami Simon and his TED talk has been viewed almost 10,000,000 times.
 
Grateful is the basis of my life. As Iay here fighting my BP yoyo-ing between way to high and way to low.. I am exceedingly grateful for my time on this planet...for the friends and family I have.

I honestly don't know how to live any other way or why anyone would want to.
 
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