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Friday, September 23, 2011

Simple Prayers Wherever You Go

Kindle ebook
It has stayed with me for more than a quarter of a century, James Madison Barr's "I don't pray, but if I did, this is what I would say..."  (Barr, now decased, was longtime humanist Unitarian minister in Memphis.)


Prayer isn't among my personal spiritual disciplines, at least formally.  But when my adult daughter, a member of the Anaheim, CA UU society alluded to her prayer life, I put together a little book for her as a Holiday gift.  I called it Simple Prayers.


In the brief introduction to my ten simple prayers, I spoke of prayer as a matter of self-transcendence.  I explained I sought to strip prayer to its essence with the hope that those who use my offerings will be able to use a particular prayer throughout the day.


Here's one of the ten simple prayers:


9
Mercy and Forgiveness,
Scour my mind and rectify my heart.


I think the resulting book, published on Create Space and available on Amazon, is handsome.  It includes blank pages for journaling--keeping a record of one's prayer life..  It's the sort of book one might keep on the home desk or on a bedside table.

Recently I turned it into a Kindle ebook.  This is the sort of resource to keep with one during the day, easily accessible for immediate inspiration/succor.  Hence, I gave this edition the subtitle Wherever You Go, fulfilling the longstanding UU admonition to make one's life a "prayer without ceasing." 

The Kindle edition has the additional  advantage of making my little book more private for public reading/reference. 

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