Everyman’s Prayers

Man can readily be defined as the creator and inventor of the world he lives and craves. This responsibility and expectations place man at a position to always strive to defend and redefine the self. Prayer serves man’s purposes on several dimensions and personal as well as private essences. In work and play, man is made to believe in his capacities to make things happen. And so he goes deeper into his inner self to relate and reinvigorate these essences. Prayer is one tool and a medium through which man relates and reconnects to the self. Hence, every man prays. Prayer affords man moments to be vulnerable. In prayer man surrenders the self to an Other whom he accepts and believes as greater and able to do what he, man cannot. In Everyman’s Prayer, I attempt a catalogue of those manly emotions and moments that truly challenge, reward, as well as reaffirms man as mortal. Each entry is preceded by an epigram that encapsulates the thrust of each prayer theme. At the end of each prayer entry, a few words of reflections invite the reader to go deeper and make more meaning of the reasons he prays and believes in the place of prayer in his life. The epigrams, like the prayers, are representations of the moods and emotions that are very typical to man’s approaches to navigating the world. The entire volume is non-denominational or religious. I pull materials from the secular and spiritual, not religion. Thus, the prayer entries and the reflective commentaries are essentially human; and they cut across all religions and beliefs.