How do you use prayer lists?

If you use prayer listsm how to you use them?

For me, I type a prayer name, then in the notes section, I type what it's for. Like the prayer name might be "Missions in Haiti". then in the Notes I type "For all the victims in Haiti, their families and those worried about them, and for all of those offering care and charity";

then when it's time to pray it, I hover over the prayer name in the ribbon bar, and the Notes pops up for a second. I read it quickly, but often it doesn't stay up long enough. How do you do it, do you always click edit to read your whole note while you pray?

I know there has been lots of discussion on prayer lists, for me it would work fine if the little popup of what was said in the note stayed up longer.

But back to my question - how do you do it?

Thanks!

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

MJ. Smith

how do you do it?

I use it in a manner similar to that which you do - with a St. Vincent de Paul Society day, a Taize day etc. I wanted to be able to double click on the prayer list to open the day. Unfortunately, that marks it finished. But I have a request in to have a single click open it. So I pretend I want to edit it in order to read/pray it. I use the "answer" section for notes, reflections etc. Since petitionary and intercessory prayer are only a fraction of my prayer life, I find the label "answer" somewhere between bemusing and annoying.

Rosie Perera

If you use prayer listsm how to you use them?

For me, I type a prayer name, then in the notes section, I type what it's for. Like the prayer name might be "Missions in Haiti". then in the Notes I type "For all the victims in Haiti, their families and those worried about them, and for all of those offering care and charity";

I've only tried it once and only created one item and it was...ironically...also for Haiti.

Since I don't use the Home Page much, I don't get reminded about it every day. But Haiti is on my mind all the time anyway, since my brother is down there working with CARE on the relief efforts.

I used to be one who used 3x5 cards for prayer lists, and it was a big dutiful thing for me, never advanced my relationship with God. The only difference it seemed to make was that it helped people to know I was praying for them. I still tell them I'm praying for them (and that still helps) but I don't do it in that dutiful way anymore. If God brings them to mind, I pray on the spot. Otherwise, whatever. Over time I have broadened in my understanding of prayer to encompass more than just pray for this or that person or outcome and then when it comes to pass, mark it as answered and stop praying for it. That still makes up a portion of my prayer life, but a small fraction of it (like MJ).

Here are a few of my favorite quotes about prayer:

“Prayer is keeping company with God.” (various ancient Christian writers, including Clement of Alexandria and Evagrius of Pontus; quoted by Simon Tugwell in Prayer: Living with God, p. vii)

“To pray is to pay attention or, shall we say, ‘to listen’ to someone or something other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention — be it on a landscape, or a poem or a geometrical problem or an idol or the True God — that he completely forgets his own ego and desires in listening to what the other has to say to him, he is praying.” (W.H. Auden)

“Prayer does not change God, it changes the one who offers it.” (Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, p. 345)

“Prayer is the nearest approach to God and the highest enjoyment of him that we are capable of in this life.”
(Walter Hilton, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, ch. XIV)

“Prayer is nothing else than a devout setting of our will in the direction of God in order to get good, and remove evil.”
(The Cloud of Unknowing, p. 106)

“Prayer is a conversation in which God’s word has the initiative and we, for the moment, can be nothing more than listeners.”
(Hans Urs von Balthasar, Prayer, p. 15)

“The art of praying, as we grow, is really the art of learning to waste time gracefully—to be simply the clay in the hands of the potter.”
(Thomas H. Green, S.J., When the Well Runs Dry, p. 59)

“Prayer is the breath of the soul.”
(Ole Hallesby, Prayer, p. 147)

     Come now, little man,
turn aside for a while from your daily employment,
escape for a moment from the tumult of your thoughts.
     Put aside your weighty cares,
     let your burdensome distractions wait,
     free yourself awhile for God
     and rest awhile in him.
Enter the inner chamber of your soul,
     shut out everything except God
     and that which can help you in seeking him,
     and when you have shut the door, seek him.
Now, my whole heart, say to God,
     ‘I see your face,
Lord, it is your face I seek.’
  (Saint Anselm, from Proslogion, ch. 1)

So, as you can see, for much of that kind of a life of prayer, prayer lists don't really help. Nothing against them, it just is really probably not a feature I'll make much use of.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/97840#Comment_97840

my understanding of prayer to encompass more than just pray for this or that person or outcome and then when it comes to pass, mark it as answered and stop praying for it.

One lesson I learned from a friend. He said that the hardest thing about watching his elderly father dying from brain cancer was to learn to pray for what was best for his father, to admit that he didn't know what that was but the instant miracle cure he wanted to pray for wasn't it.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/97840#Comment_97840

So, as you can see, for much of that kind of a life of prayer, prayer lists don't really help.

But if you have them showing up every day, they are a cool place to store your quotes. [:D]

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/97845#Comment_97845

So, as you can see, for much of that kind of a life of prayer, prayer lists don't really help.

But if you have them showing up every day, they are a cool place to store your quotes.

Now that would be a cool feature: quote of the day! Take a random quote from among the things you've highlighted in your library. And of course if you collect quotes from other (print-based) sources like I do, you could enter them in a Notes file and highlight them so they'd be included in the rotation, too. Oh wait, we can't highlight in our own Notes. Oops, that's another feature to request!

NetworkGeek

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/97863#Comment_97863

Thanks for the comments so far.

I very much believe prayer aligns us with God, it does nothing to him (unless he happens to will something to happen if we pray for it, he could do that if he wanted to). Otherwise why would we pray, as God knows what is best for us before we do, and he is always right, and he loves us more than we love ourselves!

I never used any kind of list, but I like being reminded to remember others, and that's why I use it. Like MJ I do other types of prayer, but for me this is a small way to get in the habit of thining about others specifically.

Jack Caviness

for me it would work fine if the little popup of what was said in the note stayed up longer.

I use the Prayer List in the same manner, and I also would like to see amore persistent popup.

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/97845#Comment_97845

But if you have them showing up every day, they are a cool place to store your quotes.

I like that idea!