Day 47 = Singing in the Streets

"Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!"

As my final prayer method for this year, I joined in the happy throngs singing in the streets. This is a much more Christian country than I expected. There were several groups regaling the passing public with their jubilant glee and thanksgiving. It didn't matter that I didn't know the words, language or church backgrounds, I could join in with the phrases that are practically universal across linguistic groups globally. I could share the smiles, joy and excitement of the singers and those members of the public who were excitedly creating their own jigs to visually accompany the beautiful lyrics.

It was a different experience from the chorale day I'd participated in, and used as a basis for my prayer, some days ago. This was more random, uncontained and stirring. I didn't know when I would encounter another similar group in the streets, and their delight at my joining in, unquestionably and without being asked, was paramount. What a happy way to celebrate the Lord's day! A once in a lifetime experience that will always be treasured. The unexpected gleeful corporate worship that one occasionally encounters is almost more precious than several planned hymns.

A beautiful time of celebration, and a wonderful finale to my prayer journey this lent. I didn't manage to use all the different methods available to me for prayer, and have several ideas for next year's further exploration. Many of my ideas were in some ways very similar and uniform, being based on my preferred methods of prayer, that of using my hands creatively in worship time, and revelling in the fabulous natural world that God has created incorporating water and high places. 

I look forward to adapting each of these methods more in the coming year and having the freedom to return to several of my more preferred methods of prayer, without the need to challenge myself to pray in a different way each day. I am also excited about experimenting with spiritual practices by researching more methods in preparation for next year's lentern progress, as well as creating more encounters with the word in my devotional time. Particularly in my next journey of discovery, an attempt to reproduce my lentern adventure with 40 days of different ways of studying the scripture, from (Orthodox) Easter to Pentecost.

I would never have guessed that there were so many different ways to pray before I began this quest, and yet, I am very much aware that I have barely scraped the surface with my antics this year. In the words of my priest, "whenever I introduce prayer at the Confirmation group, I give them a list of 101 ways to pray, as I realise that each person is different and what appeals to one may not be so attractive to another. There are, of course, as many ways to pray as there are people, if not many more".