From Zev Chafetz, The Right Way to Pray? NY Times, Sept. 16, 2009:
“… when you come right down to it, there are only four basic prayers. Gimme! Thanks! Oops! and Wow!”
“That’s it?”
“Yep. Wow! are prayers of praise and wonder at the creation. Oops! is asking for forgiveness. Gimme! is a request or a petition. Thanks! is expressing gratitude. That’s the entire Judeo-Christian doxology. That’s what we teach our kids in religious school.”
“What about adults who want to learn to pray?”
“I tell them to start with prayers of Thanks! That’s what Christians call ‘grace.’ Everybody has something to be grateful for.”
“What if the person doesn’t believe in God?”
“Then I tell him to thank who or what seems appropriate,” Gellman said. “Hey, you’ve got to start somewhere. If people say prayer is a crutch, I don’t disagree. Sometimes you need a crutch. But I don’t believe in a God who is a magician and miraculously answers individual prayer. That’s absurd.”
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