On Being Blog

My Pocket Prayers

Colleen Scheck, Producer

This week’s program “Approaching Prayer” is on my list of SOF classics. It’s a busy program: three interviews, readings and poetry, chants and music, biblical stories and Rilke quotes.

I love Anoushka Shankar’s description of Hinduism’s connection to nature and how prayer is about sound as much as words. I appreciate Stephen Mitchell’s story of how encountering the Book of Job was a “spiritual riddle” for him — a form of prayer. And I’m drawn to Roberta Bondi’s generous philosophy of prayer: “However we are, however we think we ought to be in prayer, the fact is we just need to show up and do the best we can do. It’s like being in a family.”

This program always makes me reflect on what I consider prayer to be in my life. I’m reminded this time of the pocket prayers I keep in my wallet — the Irish Blessing (my heritage) and the Serenity Prayer (authored by Niebuhr, popularized in addiction recovery programs, cherished by me for its simple, versatile message to consider what is and isn’t in my control on a daily basis):

My guess is many of you have pocket “prayers” that you keep with you — hanging on a wall, stapled in a hall; tattooed on your chest, knitted within a crest; stuck to the bumper of a car, in restroom of a bar; on a church, or a yurt; whatever shape to which it may convert.

We’d love to see them and know how they reflect creative and generous approaches to prayer. You can submit your images a couple of ways:

• E-mail your image, video, or audio to post@speakingoffaith.posterous.com. Use the subject line for the title, and enter your description in the body of the message.
• Upload your image using our Web form.