I'm thinking this morning about prayer-about how much I dislike the artificial voice and wording that often comes with public prayers (even my own sometimes), and how hard it is not to shift into that voice when praying out loud. It's as if we think God couldn't understand us if we talked in the same language we speak to one another...the same way we shift our pattern (often demeaningly) when we talk to children. I think God would much rather engage with us in an everyday sort of way.

Some thoughts I like, from the book The Life of Meaning (Bob Abernethy and William Boles, editors):

Bishop Desmond Tutu on wordless prayer, his sense of being in God's presence, which he likens to sitting near a warm stove on a cold morning. "I don't have to do anything. The fire warms me. I just have to be there, quiet."

Stanley Hauerwas (a professor at Duke Divinity School): "I don't try to assume a persona when I pray. I speak to God the way I am. And I never try to protect God. I figure God can take it...I prayed a prayer this morning that said, 'I'm angry. I'm one angry son of a bitch. I think I'm angry because I have such great hope. I hope my anger is of you. So save me from anger that''s petty, but don't take my anger from me...' You're not supposed to be angry in prayer. But I try to pray with that kind of straightforwardness and non-apologetically."

What are the times and forms that help you feel most authentically in prayer-connecting with God?