Abide in Prayer: Write Your Own Prayers This Lent

This Lent we invite you to write prayers for our community as we accompany one another along our journey of prayer and self-reflection. These prayers will be shared on a weekly basis in our eNews and online.

How to sign up:

Email Rev. Heidi (hthorsen@trinitynewhaven.org) to sign up for a particular week. You will receive a reminder the week before. Rev. Heidi will compile the prayers, and they will be shared in the following week's eNews and online (website and Facebook). Take inspiration from each Sunday's readings by clicking the links below.

How to Write a Prayer:

Prayers can be written like a poem our journal entry, or you could follow the traditional format of a "collect." Collects are short prayers used in common worship, typically separated into three parts:

  1. Attribute: a statement of who God is (describes what God has done in the past and what you will ask God to do)

  2. Ask: describe how we are asking God to help us

  3. Amen: typically in a Trinitarian form (e.g., through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, etc.)

Example (Proper 28):

Attribute: Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning

Ask: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ

Amen: Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

You can take the above format and be creative with it, or let your words be more freeform. Be in touch with Rev. Heidi if you have questions or would like input in the prayer writing process.

Augie SeggerComment