PRESENTATION ON FAMILY PRAYER
By Nancy Phillips
Given at the Annual Meeting of the
ANGLICAN FELLOWSHIP OF PRAYER, May 21, 2002
I want to spend a few minutes tonight speaking about family prayer. So often, when we think of prayer, we think only of personal prayer: our petitions to a loving God, our ability to intercede for others, the Intercessions we engage in at a Sunday service, our devotional times at home. But family prayer is a way of inviting our children into our love relationship with God. And when we pray with our children and ask them to pray, we are entering into their love relationship with God.
Family prayer begins as a couple makes a commitment to a shared life together and chooses to pray with family and friends. In the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage in the Book of Alternative Services (on p. 546), the following prayer is prayed over the couple:
May they so live together that the strength of their love may enrich our common life and become a sign of your faithfulness.
May they receive the gift and heritage of children and the grace to bring them up to know and love you.
May their home be a place of truth, security and love; and their lives an example of concern for others.
Our family life is the first experience our children have of Christian community. Their experiences of being loved and cared for form the inner core of beginning to understand the nature of God's love for them. Prayer with children can begin as early as pregnancy, praying for the developing baby. We know from research that the child in the womb gets to know the mother's voice long before the child is born. The child will hear the words expressing your relationship with Jesus in your prayers long before they can speak their own prayers.
Family prayers can be enriched by the presence of devotional music. Here are many recordings of music that appeal to all ages: from the most simple praise songs that appeal to very young children, to contemporary rock musicians that appeal to teenagers. At every level, music helps children internalize and express the depth of their love relationship with God.
An atmosphere of faith in the home can be expressed in the symbols of our Faith: perhaps a cross by the front door, a special place for the family Bible between two candles on the dining room table, the Christmas Advent wreath and nativity scene, and so on. When our oldest son, David, was born, I was given the gift of a hooked rug showing the Good Shepherd tending His sheep. It hung over his cradle and later beside the crib. The hanging was done in vivid colour and as an infant, both of our sons loved to stare at that hanging. I hope that image of God's love for them stays emblazoned on their minds forever.
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