The image itself is almost a cliche. Football players huddled together in the locker room or on the field before the big game – bowing their heads and saying The Lord’s Prayer together.

I’ll admit, in situations like these, I’m somewhat leery of reciting prayers by rote. In many cases, I fear they are mechanical, impersonal, superstitious chants more than heartfelt communications with the divine creator. (No, I’m not being judgmental. I’m just saying that one can recite a prayer without actually praying just like one can sing in church without actually worshiping. One is from the mouth. The other is from the heart.)

But because prayer is a heart issue, I think there can be a time and a place for pre-written, standardized prayers, if they are prayed from the heart and not just cited from the lips.

For example, I love to pray Psalm 8 when I want to praise God, and there are many times when I will just take a verse or two from the Bible and turn them into a prayer back to God. Similarly, when something very specific is on my mind, sometimes I will write out a prayer and use it over and over again before God, just to keep my mind from wandering during such an important time.

Today, I came across a beautifully written prayer penned by St. Francis of Assisi hundreds of years ago:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

I was very moved by the beauty of this prayer, and the message it held, and thought it was one I’d like to pray myself.

What about you? Do you ever use standardized, pre-written prayers in your prayer life? Why or why not? If you do, which ones have special meaning to you?