Evendays

The Tuesday prayer group at the local Protestant Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Vaud (that really is its name) always has two antiphonal prayers… One at the beginning and another, appropriately, at the end. One of the weekly participants, a very kind, yet very-old-enough-to-know-she-can-speak-her-mind lady, told me she hates those prayers. (I kind of like them.) She wonders why we have to respond like sheep baaa-ing. (Her words, not mine.) I suppose it’s because no one prays during the free prayer time. Plus we are able to cover the liturgical calendar, preparing our minds for Easter and Christmas.

Then the Tuesday pastor will continue… “As we pray the prayer that our Lord taught his disciples to pray: ‘Notre Père qui es au cieux, que ton nom soit sanctifié…’”

I was at a workers’ retreat in November ’07 when one of the guys asked me to pray. I prayed Psalm 130 and then finished with: “As we pray the prayer that our Lord taught his disciples to pray…” Several joined in. Others prayed silently.

How about you? Does your church, or do you… recite that prayer? Why?