Some thoughts about praying

Some thoughts about praying expand

Here are some interesting thoughts about the nature of prayer and being God and Heavenward directed in our praying. I have always found The Lord's Prayer a great help and comfort when I am 'stuck' in my prayer life, and it is interesting to see how it is central not only in Catholic and Anglican liturgies but also in Coptic and Jewish worship. In personal devotion it is also an invaluable aid.

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The Kaddish is a prayer found in the Jewish prayer service. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God ‘s holy name. It is the traditional prayer for the dead in the synagogue. There are variations on the Kaddish, and I offer here the more general form for your consideration: “May the great Name of God be exalted and sanctified, throughout the world, which he has created according to his will. May his Kingship be established in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the entire household of Israel, swiftly and in the near future; and say, Amen. May his great name be blessed, forever and ever. Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, honored, elevated, and lauded be the Name of the holy one, Blessed is he- above and beyond any blessings and hymns, Praises and consolations which are uttered in the world; and say, May there be abundant peace from Heaven and life, upon us and upon all Israel; and say, Amen.” The striking nature of this prayer for the dead is that it does not mention the dead! The prayer is about God. It reminds me of the time when a funeral services in a traditional liturgical church were about God. It used to be that one heard complaints that the Anglican (or Roman or Lutheran) liturgy for the burial of the dead did not even mention the name of the deceased. Nowadays matters have swung much too far in the other direction. Our funerals in the west are now ALL about the dead. God is mentioned only as a measure of respectability or a desperate attempt to redeem the one who has died. We can learn a lot from the Jewish Kaddish as we think about the prayer that Jesus gave us to pray. We pray also in a similar manner to that of our Jewish brothers and sisters, asking that God’s name be made holy, that God’s kingdom come so that God’s will may be accomplished. We acknowledge God as the source of all earthly blessings. We seek redemption, and we pray that we not fail in our courage at the hour of death and that peace (shalom) will prevail at the end. In the Jewish faith the Kaddish in its various forms is not recited only on special occasions such as funerals. The Kaddish closes every service. The Kaddish is said daily and even several times a day. As one Rabbi says, “Just do it!” One understands why this admonition is so critical to the life of faith, for God is often hidden behind the veil of this life with its suffering and injustice. Prayers like the Kaddish and the Lord’s Prayer not only evoke God’s presence but they also evoke from us a true sense of humanity as we stand before God who made heaven and earth. One of the things that attracted me to the liturgical tradition was the constant use of the Lord’s prayer in the life of the faithful. This was a great contrast with my very non-liturgical (or anti-liturgical) upbringing, in which we were taught to use the Lord’s prayer simply as a model by which we were to pray strictly from the heart. But Jesus did not instruct his disciples to fashion their prayers along the line of a model. He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” (Luke 11:2-4) I don’t think we have any liturgies that are without the Lord’s prayer. It’s almost Pavlovian. When I hear the prayer, I think it is time to leave. One parishioner once worried about our use of the small bell when we pray the Our Father during the Eucharistic prayer. They said, it almost made them salivate for the bread and wine and the future that is promised in the sacred meal. Now that is Pavlovian! But the truth is, we are to pray the Lord’s prayer as often as possible in order that we remain conscious of the truth of the incomprehensible mystery of the presence of God around us mortal creatures who are incomplete without the knowledge that we are loved by this same God. That is who we really are. The Didache, which is one of the oldest manuals on the Christian faith, dictates that we pray this way three times a day. (8:3) In the Coptic liturgy the Lord’s prayer is said over and over again at an incredible speed. For the prayer in its totality evokes the sacred presence. The Lord’s Prayer is a linguistic symbol capable of placing us properly in the world and before God. We should recite the Lord’s prayer as often as possible, as Jesus admonishes in the Gospel. Ignore the wrongheaded advice from simpleminded fundamentalists that would have you believe that any prayer that is written down can not be from the heart. Our Lord has bidden us to pray this prayer. The repetition is nothing other than our persistent turning to God for help, renewal and peace. In this way the prayer delivers the blessing that Christ himself came to deliver—life now and forevermore. When the faithful visit each other at times of illness or in times of grief, it is the Lord’s prayer that most often is the decisive moment among us. As I have visited with those who face surgery or the funeral of a beloved one, I sensed more than once that all the effort that we put into holding ourselves together, of running on our own steam, condenses into the tears of relief that God is here, and in the end it is all about God.

There are variations on the Kaddish, and I offer here the more general form for your consideration:

“May the great Name of God be exalted and sanctified, throughout the world, which he has created according to his will. May his Kingship be established in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the entire household of Israel, swiftly and in the near future; and say, Amen. May his great name be blessed, forever and ever. Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, honored, elevated, and lauded be the Name of the holy one, Blessed is he- above and beyond any blessings and hymns, Praises and consolations which are uttered in the world; and say, May there be abundant peace from Heaven and life, upon us and upon all Israel; and say, Amen.” The striking nature of this prayer for the dead is that it does not mention the dead! The prayer is about God. It reminds me of the time when a funeral services in a traditional liturgical church were about God. It used to be that one heard complaints that the Anglican (or Roman or Lutheran) liturgy for the burial of the dead did not even mention the name of the deceased. Nowadays matters have swung much too far in the other direction. Our funerals in the west are now ALL about the dead. God is mentioned only as a measure of respectability or a desperate attempt to redeem the one who has died. We can learn a lot from the Jewish Kaddish as we think about the prayer that Jesus gave us to pray. We pray also in a similar manner to that of our Jewish brothers and sisters, asking that God’s name be made holy, that God’s kingdom come so that God’s will may be accomplished. We acknowledge God as the source of all earthly blessings. We seek redemption, and we pray that we not fail in our courage at the hour of death and that peace (shalom) will prevail at the end. In the Jewish faith the Kaddish in its various forms is not recited only on special occasions such as funerals. The Kaddish closes every service. The Kaddish is said daily and even several times a day. As one Rabbi says, “Just do it!” One understands why this admonition is so critical to the life of faith, for God is often hidden behind the veil of this life with its suffering and injustice. Prayers like the Kaddish and the Lord’s Prayer not only evoke God’s presence but they also evoke from us a true sense of humanity as we stand before God who made heaven and earth. One of the things that attracted me to the liturgical tradition was the constant use of the Lord’s prayer in the life of the faithful. This was a great contrast with my very non-liturgical (or anti-liturgical) upbringing, in which we were taught to use the Lord’s prayer simply as a model by which we were to pray strictly from the heart. But Jesus did not instruct his disciples to fashion their prayers along the line of a model. He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” (Luke 11:2-4) I don’t think we have any liturgies that are without the Lord’s prayer. It’s almost Pavlovian. When I hear the prayer, I think it is time to leave. One parishioner once worried about our use of the small bell when we pray the Our Father during the Eucharistic prayer. They said, it almost made them salivate for the bread and wine and the future that is promised in the sacred meal. Now that is Pavlovian! But the truth is, we are to pray the Lord’s prayer as often as possible in order that we remain conscious of the truth of the incomprehensible mystery of the presence of God around us mortal creatures who are incomplete without the knowledge that we are loved by this same God. That is who we really are. The Didache, which is one of the oldest manuals on the Christian faith, dictates that we pray this way three times a day. (8:3) In the Coptic liturgy the Lord’s prayer is said over and over again at an incredible speed. For the prayer in its totality evokes the sacred presence. The Lord’s Prayer is a linguistic symbol capable of placing us properly in the world and before God. We should recite the Lord’s prayer as often as possible, as Jesus admonishes in the Gospel. Ignore the wrongheaded advice from simpleminded fundamentalists that would have you believe that any prayer that is written down can not be from the heart. Our Lord has bidden us to pray this prayer. The repetition is nothing other than our persistent turning to God for help, renewal and peace. In this way the prayer delivers the blessing that Christ himself came to deliver—life now and forevermore. When the faithful visit each other at times of illness or in times of grief, it is the Lord’s prayer that most often is the decisive moment among us. As I have visited with those who face surgery or the funeral of a beloved one, I sensed more than once that all the effort that we put into holding ourselves together, of running on our own steam, condenses into the tears of relief that God is here, and in the end it is all about God.

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A Note to Hebrews

This is an article I posted on a Jewish website earlier today, 20th. June, 2010.

I have been through a large number of challenging experiences recently, as many of us do, but believe that Hashem is speaking to us a family through the events which we would not have chosen ourselves.

In a letter written to Hebrews I have just come across the following words.

"It is for discipline you have to endure. Hashem is treating you as sons. For what father is there whom a father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who discplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

I believe that Hashem allows these sometimes bitter experiences and sufferings for a purpose. Without going into gory details, we have been withheld payment on a large itemized invoice, defrauded of over £1,100, had our car broken into with phones cards and life sustaining essential medication stolen while we were away from home on a Bank holiday, we were only going on a 20 minute walk. Yesterday, my son Benjamin ended up in hospital on his birthday with what seems to be quite a serious illness, his immune system is destroying the platelets in his blood. He may have to live with it, he is only 27 and has just provided us with our first grandson. I am convinced that Hashem is looking after us through all of this and is allowing it all for our own good!

Therefore, my friends, I am holding on to my faith in the Infinite Wisdom of Hashem. I hope this will be of some help and comfort to others. Do let me know if you have any questions or comments or experiences you want to share. Every blessing to you all, my friends.

I Like Klezmer music

I wrote in my blog a few days ago about how in recent months I have become increasingly drawn to klezmer music. Although I am a musician by profession, when I first came across the word klezmer I didn't have the faintest idea what it was.

About 4 years ago we had a holiday in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, partly because we wanted to experience some live concerts at the renowned festival held at the Snape maltings, a festival which was founded by Benjamin Britten in 1948. We managed to secure tickets for two concerts during the week we had booked our holiday flat, one of which featured the Geneva Chamber Orchestra performing Dvorak's Serenade, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mendelssohn's Octet. The other concert was given by Burning Bush, a group who played Jewish pieces, sung and instrumental, which they had collected from all over Europe and many of which came from Israel. They performed these on violins, guitar, clarinet, double bass, accordion, rebec and various other eastern plucked string instruments. The songs expressed both joyful celebration and a yearning for deliverance from enemies, persecution and suffering. At the end of the evening which was thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying from a musical point of view, I had, without realizing it at the time, experienced my first klezmer concert.

The label klezmer was unknown to me at the time even though I am supposed to have received a fairly wide musical education. The problem is that when I went to school just after Noah came out of the ark we were not taught anything about world music as it is now known. Italian grand opera was something we heard with regular monotony, as this happened to be the music particularly favoured by our Secondary school music teacher.

Approximately 10-12 months ago I was listening to music on Last FM when I happened to light on one of the musical tags which they feature which was the word klezmer. The word klezmer originates from Yiddish, 'kley' meaning instrument and 'zemer' meaning song. In Hebrew the word klizemer literally means musical instrument. In its contemporary setting the word klezmer is used to define a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism.

About the time of the 15th. century a tradition of secular Jewish music was developed by musicians which came to be known as klezmorim or kleymurim. This music relied on devotional traditions which went back to Biblical times and this has continued to evolve into the klezmer music we hear today. Like all traditional and folk music, because it is not generally written down it continues to change and there are often various different versions of any particular piece as a result. In many ways klezmer music is akin to jazz, featuring instrumental improvisation and vocal embellishments. I have noticed that some piece are more structured, rather like traditional jazz and other pieces seem almost random and ostensibly chaotic, something reminiscent of modern jazz.

The repertoire of klezmer music consists mainly of dance songs for weddings and other celebrations, of which there are many, as the Jews hold feasts in accordance with the instructions given to Moses in the Torah (law) in our Old Testament. Owing to the fact that this music comes from Ashkenazi roots, the lyrics, terminlolgy and song titles are generally in Yiddish.

To begin with, klezmer referred to musical instruments and later was a name given to the musicians themselves. It was only in the mid to late 20th. century that the word was adapted yet again to identify the musical genre. Earlier 20th. century recordings and writings usually refer to it as 'Yiddish' music, although it is also sometimes called Freilech music. In contrast to most other European folk music styles, very little is known about the history of klezmer music and there is a great deal of conjecture about when and how it developed.

In future postings I hope to explore the wonderful world of klezmer; its musical structure and characteristics, its historical development, its use in social and cultural settings and its entertainment potential. I also intend to look at some of the artists involved in the art of performing klezmer.

If you would like a listening preview of the adventures which await, try one or all of the following options.

1) Login to Last FM and type in 'Burning Bush' or 'Klezmer', then listen to the radio.

2) Login to Spotify and type in the search box 'Burning Bush' or 'Klezmer'. Enjoy!

3) Login to Winamp and select the CBS radio player channel which is devoted to klezmer.

If your musical tastebuds are stimulated by this exercise then look out for my next article. If not, then I hope to engage your attention again in the near future. Meanwhile I wish you great joy and happiness in your listening to music.