{"id":8331,"date":"2012-12-19T19:22:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-20T00:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/?p=8331"},"modified":"2017-01-25T19:41:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T00:41:06","slug":"probably-unacceptable-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Probably Unacceptable Prayer…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2026 OK, unacceptable<\/em> is a slight exaggeration. Maybe more along the lines of \u201cimperfect\u201d prayer. I think most prayer is probably acceptable, except the smiting ones<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Infamous for having never finished a novena<\/a>, we can now add composer of truly awful prayers to the r\u00e9sum\u00e9. The official Church prayers are beautiful and full of sound theology. Mine, not so much. Take, for example, the prayer I typically say at my desk every morning. \u201cLord, I hate my job. Just get me through the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps I should say, \u201cLord, just get me through the day without taking my job for granted.\u201d Or maybe, \u201cLord, help me keep my mind focused, my eyes sharp, and my hands busy.\u201d I\u2019m sure the Benedictines have some prayer for working since they are all ora et labora<\/em> and stuff. Maybe I could throw a nod to St. Jerome in there. \u201cLord, help me have patience with my co-workers today. Just for today. We can tackle tomorrow when it gets here. St. Jerome, patron saint of grumpy people, pray for me.\u201d <\/p>\n

When I was a Pentecostal<\/a> and just learning how to pray the only guidance I received was to pray earnestly. Extemporaneous prayer was encouraged over rote prayer. You got extra points for \u2018tongues\u2019. This was especially hard since I was not in the habit of talking to God. Remember I was raised a godless heathen. The sweet Southern ladies in my prayer guild never got what the problem was; \u201cJust talk to God, Sug-ah, like you would a friend. Bless your heart\u201d, completely overlooking the fact that I don\u2019t make friends easily and that I was dubious about making the omnipotent Creator of the Cosmos something as common and terrestrial as my \u201cfriend\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I discovered Catholic prayers, like the rosary, I was instantly relieved. FYI, do NOT bring a rosary to a Pentecostal prayer meeting. If you do, expect a healin\u2019<\/em> and to be vigorously prayed over. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Man, those Catholic prayers were something else. I couldn\u2019t get enough of them. The burden of trying to think of something remotely decent to say was lifted. Be careful though. Catholics prayers need the warning label, \u201cmay cause conversion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to now; seven years after my reception into the Church. All those prayers I loved as a Pentecostal\u2026 yeah, I can\u2019t remember them without looking at something. I still<\/em> have to sneak a copy of the act of contrition<\/a> into the confessional with me and I say that prayer every month, at least. Yes, I sin. A lot. <\/p>\n

I used to carry little prayer books with me in my purse for reference since it\u2019s a good idea to pray without ceasing, not just before meals and going to bed. Especially if you are prone to fits of cynicism and sarcasm as I am. I would print out novenas and prayers and shove them in those books. Eventually I looked like a bag lady. Little scraps of paper followed me like a cloud of dirt around Pig Pen.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, I was hiding from having any type of intimacy during prayer. Not to say that rote prayers cannot be intimate or they prevent you from having meaningful spontaneous conversations with Our Lord and the Saints. Rote prayers are fantastic! There are some days when I\u2019m too physically, emotionally, or spiritually tired to strike up a conversation and it\u2019s those beautiful rote prayers that get me through the act of prayer. But I digress\u2026<\/p>\n

Where was I. Oh. So one dark day I found myself staring into the abyss of self pity. Wah. Wah. Woe is me<\/em>. And I prayed a prayer you\u2019ll likely never find in any devotional book\u2026 \u201cDamn it, Lord. Why in the hell do things have to be so flippin\u2019 hard?! Can you please cut me some damn slack?\u201d I may of may not have used stronger language. I don\u2019t remember exactly. The only thing I do recall about that moment was being shocked at myself and bracing for the lightening bolt. Instead what happened was the exact opposite of smiting. I felt relief. Then comfort. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s my point? I guess my point is that no prayer is unacceptable to the Lord. Also, prayer is a form of two communication. It\u2019s also OK if your prayer isn\u2019t perfect. Just pray. Always pray. <\/p>\n

As long as you do that, however imperfectly, you should be alright. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026 OK, unacceptable is a slight exaggeration. Maybe more along the lines of \u201cimperfect\u201d prayer. I think most prayer is probably acceptable, except the smiting ones. Infamous for having never finished a novena, we can now add composer of truly awful prayers to the r\u00e9sum\u00e9. The official Church prayers are beautiful and full of sound […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[248,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-prayers-and-devotions"],"yoast_head":"\nProbably Unacceptable Prayer...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"... OK, unacceptable is a slight exaggeration. Maybe more along the lines of "imperfect" prayer. I think most prayer is probably acceptable, except the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Probably Unacceptable Prayer...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"... OK, unacceptable is a slight exaggeration. Maybe more along the lines of "imperfect" prayer. I think most prayer is probably acceptable, except the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Crescat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-20T00:22:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-26T00:41:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/files\/2012\/12\/buddychrist.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katrina Fernandez\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katrina Fernandez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html\",\"name\":\"Probably Unacceptable Prayer...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-20T00:22:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-26T00:41:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/c9dc4618a6b6ed3f289501dad3a031b2\"},\"description\":\"... OK, unacceptable is a slight exaggeration. Maybe more along the lines of \\\"imperfect\\\" prayer. I think most prayer is probably acceptable, except the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Probably Unacceptable Prayer…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/\",\"name\":\"The Crescat\",\"description\":\"Fortified with vitamin BXVI. Not a substitute for regular mass attendance. Side effects may include mackerel snapping.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/c9dc4618a6b6ed3f289501dad3a031b2\",\"name\":\"Katrina Fernandez\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63fb79a49cad186031168f8db7e7abe1?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63fb79a49cad186031168f8db7e7abe1?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Katrina Fernandez\"},\"description\":\"Mackerel Snapping Papist\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/author\/thecrescat\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Probably Unacceptable Prayer...","description":"... OK, unacceptable is a slight exaggeration. Maybe more along the lines of \"imperfect\" prayer. I think most prayer is probably acceptable, except the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Probably Unacceptable Prayer...","og_description":"... OK, unacceptable is a slight exaggeration. Maybe more along the lines of \"imperfect\" prayer. I think most prayer is probably acceptable, except the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html","og_site_name":"The Crescat","article_published_time":"2012-12-20T00:22:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-26T00:41:06+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/files\/2012\/12\/buddychrist.jpg"}],"author":"Katrina Fernandez","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katrina Fernandez","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html","name":"Probably Unacceptable Prayer...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-12-20T00:22:02+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-26T00:41:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/c9dc4618a6b6ed3f289501dad3a031b2"},"description":"... OK, unacceptable is a slight exaggeration. Maybe more along the lines of \"imperfect\" prayer. I think most prayer is probably acceptable, except the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2012\/12\/probably-unacceptable-prayer.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Probably Unacceptable Prayer…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/","name":"The Crescat","description":"Fortified with vitamin BXVI. Not a substitute for regular mass attendance. Side effects may include mackerel snapping.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/c9dc4618a6b6ed3f289501dad3a031b2","name":"Katrina Fernandez","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63fb79a49cad186031168f8db7e7abe1?s=96&d=retro&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63fb79a49cad186031168f8db7e7abe1?s=96&d=retro&r=g","caption":"Katrina Fernandez"},"description":"Mackerel Snapping Papist","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/author\/thecrescat"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}