One of the classes I’m taking this quarter is The Spiritual Disciplines. We are appropriating things from the ancient past (by which I don’t mean 1776, I mean 276) which are helpful, taking a look at the Desert Fathers and others from our Christian history.
One of the things I have found helpful is my own adaptation of “praying the hours”. I set my watch to beep on the hour, at which time I pray the Lord’s prayer. This has been helpful, but also telling. For the first few days I really enjoyed this. It was good to have this help keeping me aware of my creator. But as the days have gone on, I have found the practice indicative of my own deficiencies. Sometimes I don’t feel like praying, and I am actually annoyed by this call to prayer. So it is for this reason I pray: "Our Father who art in heaven holly is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth (and in my life) as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever and ever. Amen."
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Perhaps extending the repertoire of how to pray the Lord's prayer may help? Lot's of ideas in the book 'Praying the Pattern' -the web site that the synopsis is on also has some further ideas and resources on praying the Lord's prayer. You might also like to consider the blog of the book too.
It may be worth noting too that very early practice was to pray it three times a day which is what I've set my watch alarms to encourage me to do. However, I tend to use a different way of praying it each time; for reflecting and praying out of scripture one time, using a prayer cord another, a prayer scrap-book another and liturgies at other times.
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