Listening to the Prayers of Our Ancestors

We learn to pray by listening to others pray. When Jesus' disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, he simply prayed in their presence. We learn to pray by praying in each other's presence - by hearing how each of us prays and by praying ourselves with our brothers and sisters. It is also important to allow our brothers and sisters from Christian history to teach us to pray. Speaking of the vital importance of tradition, G.K. Chesterton wrote: 

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.

Similarly, we must not only allow our living brothers and sisters in Christ to teach us to pray, but those who "have gone one before us" have much wisdom to offer and a vital ministry to perform. This is the role of prayer books and collections of written prayers in shaping our understanding of the prayer tradition. Within our tradition The Valley of Vision offers a stimulating collection of prayers and devotions from the Puritans. This collection is intended by Arthur Bennett to stimulate our own prayers. So may this following prayer of confession and petition teach us and stimulate us to pray. 

HOLY LORD,

I have sinned times without number,

    and been guilty of pride and unbelief,

of failure to find thy mind in thy Word,

of neglect to seek thee in my daily life. 

My transgressions and short-comings

present me with a list of accusations,

But I bless thee that they will not stand against me,

for all have been laid on Christ;

Go on to subdue my corruptions,

and grant me grace to live above them.

Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind

bring my spirit into subjection,

but do thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank thee that many of my prayers have been refused--

I have asked amiss and do not have,

I have prayed from lusts and been rejected,

I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness.

Go on with thy patient work,

answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it.

Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration,

everything contrary to thy rule.

I thank thee for thy wisdom and thy love,

for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject,

for sometimes putting me into the furnace

to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin.

If thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins,

or to have them burnt away with trial,

give me sanctified affliction.

Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins.

everything that dims the brightness of thy grace in me,

everything that prevents me taking delight in thee.

Then I shall bless thee, God of Jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

(Valley of Vision, 77)

This prayer should awaken a spirit of repentance within us, as should these words from Ezekiel. 

Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declared the sovereign LORD. Repent and live (Ezekiel 18. 30-32, NIV).