Praying in the Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer as intercessory prayer pattern

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name
[prayers of adoration and thanksgiving]

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
[prayers of longing for God’s shalom]

Give us this day our daily bread
[prayers for the needs of the community]

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors
[prayers for interpersonal reconciliation]

And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one
[prayers for the world and for personal struggles with temptation and evil]

For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen.

One way of making the Lord’s Prayer fresh is by putting yourself and the people and matters you care about into it. I came across this interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer as an intercessory prayer pattern in Debra and Ron Rienstra’s Worship Words (2009); they cite its place in Emily Brink and John Witvliet’s The Worship Sourcesbook (2004).

While I’m sure this is an excellent form for a communal worship setting, it is just as good for personal, individual reflection and prayer, and provides an open and adaptable framework for a prayer constantly refreshed and renewed.

Alissa Goudswaard lives in Lafayette, Indiana, where she is completing her MA in rhetoric and composition, baking all the cupcakes, and attempting to teach herself guitar. Find this Calvin-grad-turned-stark-raving-Episcopalian online at episcotheque.wordpress.com and on Twitter as @episcotheque.