The Christian Vanguard

A Protestant friend sent me this question. I give my answer. "I was wondering if you could help me with something. I've recently become more appreciative of liturgy and I'm wondering if it may be a beneficial aspect of our walks with God that Protestants have done away with too quickly. My question is, how sincere are you being when you recite prayers, and how often do you pray when you are not reciting a scripted prayer? I feel like these recitation could help me and my family, but I want to make sure I do it right. Hope that makes sense." My answer.  "I'm being fairly sincere. But there are aspects of these prayers that I really appreciate that I didn't get from the freestyle kind of prayers as a Protestant, namely, meditation. Not only are you supposed to be sincere, but part of the structured prayer is to help one meditate on the truths within the prayer. So not only do these pre formed prayers lift up your heart, but they also lift up your mind and i...

When I was a Protestant, our college ministry would have these really early morning prayers where all the guys would go on top of Signal Hill and pray. We would gather in a circle and go around and do a little prayer. And by itself a 2 or three minute prayer isn't bad, but, when you have a couple of guys who are just trying to flex, a 3 minute prayers in a circle of about 15 guys can mean just standing in a circle for a solid 45 minutes, and I wasn't having it. So when it was my turn to pray, all I said was, "Dear God, please bless me with millions and millions of dollars. Amen." I was kinda making a point, and I was being a butthead about it. Afterwards, my friend Max came up to me, and he told me, "Dude, I looked up and Steve just gave you the maddest look. It was hilarious." Indeed, it was.  So, what exactly is wrong here? Maybe the execution of the prayer, in that context, but I want to look at the content. The content of the prayer did, at the time, see...

No. Only God is omniscient, and this, unlike some of His other qualities, cannot be shared. Some Protestants, like one I recently talked to via text, said that in order for Saints to hear our prayers, they must be omniscient. This doesn't follow. Since prayers aren't all that make up truth in the world, and omniscient is knowledge of all that makes up truth, omniscience isn't necessary. Add to this the fact that prayers are finite, even if numerous,  Saints can still be aware of all our prayers without being omniscient. This same Protestant also argued that since prayers come from everywhere in the world, they must also be omnipresent. For the same reasons as before, this also doesn't follow. I didn't think to bring it up at the time, but 1 Peter 5:8 reads,  Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. This was written for all Christians at all times at every place. And surely, the devil can temp...

How is the "Our Father" prayer meant to be recited? Many of my protestant friends do not believe that when Jesus taught us how to pray this prayer, he didn't mean it word for word, but that he kind of gave us an outline. I have not heard any exegesis for this view. That is not to say that I have not heard and sound exegetical arguments for this view, but that there is no such argument put forth at all, and I have asked.  So, on the face of it, it just seems like we should pray it exactly as Jesus told us to. But history shows that this is how we are meant to pray this. The Didache is one of the oldest teachings of the Church in print, and probably predates even some books of the Bible (a fact which probably lead some to believe that it was inspired and belonged in the Canon). It's kind of like the first catechist book. This is what is says,  Neither pray ye as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, so pray ye: "Our Father, who art in hea...

This picture from Catholic Meme's started this fictional conversation. I've had bits and pieces spread out in real conversations, so here it is all condensed into the fictional character Jill.  Me:...and that's why I think that's a bad idea.  Jill: You should pray about it, bro. I did.  M: What do you mean you prayed about it? J: LOL! Don't you pray? M: I do. But I think you revealed that you and I don't have the same understanding of prayer. So, what do you mean you "prayed" about it. How do you "pray about" something?