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So, I think this is funny, and I hope I can represent the audio aspect of this in the written form. Have you ever thought about our standard and universally accepted prayer intonation and cadence in the LDS Church? It goes something like this, with the higher tones represented by (HT) WORD (HT) and the lower tones by the (LT) Word (LT). I can’t quite represent the candence/rhythm. I tried a physical representation of the intonation, but the spacing got lost:
Our
(HT) Father (HT)in (LT) Heaven (LT), We
(HT) thank thee (HT)for blah-blah-blah and our (LT) Blessings (LT). . . numerous lines with same cadence/intonation …
We
(HT) ask thee (HT)to help us . . . and have Thy (LT) Spirit (LT). . . numerous lines with same cadence/intonation …
In the
(HT) Name (HT)of (HT) Jesus Christ, A- (HT)(LT) men!! (LT)I hope that came across okay. Its funny to me that we have a standard cadence/intonation; it works for every thank Thee and ask Thee. We all do it, and VERY FEW will notice that it’s so. We just kind of pick it up.
Now for the really funny part, and I would love to hear how this goes: Next time you are asked to give a prayer, give your normal prayer, but flip the intonation. High tones at the end. Low tones as the second and third syllables in the sentence, and see what your reaction is.
I admit, I’m a bit chicken to try it myself, as it might come across as mocking God or prayer, when really it’s just mocking ourselves and our non-questioning conformity! If you can’t bring yourself to do it in a public prayer, just sound one out with this method and hear how odd it sounds!!!
This is great – and I might give it try, but I don’t think I’m skilled enough to pull it off. I would never do it publicly (wouldn’t want to) – but I think it’s a great thing to do out loud in private, just to remind ourselves of the importance of not falling into rote patterns and unthinking, “vain” (of no effect) repetitions. Ray, Let me couch this in more positive terms: I think as you pray, even publicly, we could/should pay more attention to the manner of our prayer, stressing the words that are most important to us. We could insert slight pause or change the cadence for the same reasons. I think if I did this approach, I would be completely appropriate and I think the results would be better.
Also, let me say, the humor I saw in this is more in our foibles as humans than as a criticism of LDS people in particular.
One Sunday at church many years ago as a young married, I went to priesthood meeting opening exercises, and a teenage priest had been asked to offer the opening prayer. I bowed my head, closed my eyes, and listened as he prayed. As he was praying, suddenly the entire congregation said, “Amen.” Stunned I looked around. The boy was leaving the stand and the prayer was over. As I asked myself over and over what had just happened, slowly I began to realize that the boy had emitted an extremely abbreviated LDS closing (in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.) of the prayer that had been so fast I had missed it. Reconstructing it to the best of my wits, I eventually decided that what he said must have been something like this:
Quote:Nshkrstmn.
Amen.
I agree, ss. I hope my comment didn’t seem like a criticism of the post. It wasn’t meant to be.
Not at all Ray, just got me thinking as always. I applaud a man in our ward who didn’t give the standard church closing prayer. He thanked Heavenly Father repeatedly for so many things never asking for anything in return. Meanwhile, on the back bench with my hubby and I, the missionaries are rolling their eyes and laughing silently amongst themselves. I was so angry with their ignorance… I think the cadence in and of itself could be important as it automatically can put our minds into a state of prayer-fullness. All ritual and meditation seems to have some element of this as it puts our mind and thoughts into a certain state. Although I agree “shaking” things up might be useful on some level, I wonder if it might be more of a distraction than anything. I really like to listen to the Hare Krishna Mantra when I am feeling overwhelmed and disconnected spiritually and there are many different versions of it in terms of tempo and emphasis which ultimately evoke different emotions. (example: listen to all four versions on the album “All One” by Krishna Das)
This mantra got me through some very difficult times during my dissertation work. For some reason one very challenging and discouraging evening I felt impressed to listen to the mantra and found myself just sitting in my office crying and feeling like the burden was just being lifted from me…combined with traditional LDS prayer I would often just close my eyes and let the mantra pull me into a meditative state of peace and grace. The mantra itself is obviously outside of my normal LDS faith paradigm, but I find it along with many other Hindu mantras to evoke some very deep emotions. Perhaps because I do not understand the meanings of most of them I can easily impute the meaning of simply trying draw down peace and grace from God.
“The word Hare comes from ‘Haran’ which means to take away or to end. So when one says Hare Krishna he requests God (the supreme consciousness) to take away his sorrows, his shortcomings, his failures and pains. This Hare Krishna Mantra is actually a little prayer to God for taking away all the sorrows, pains and shortcomings of the chanter and provide him bliss and joy.”
This is the version I listened to during that difficult time
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