Music, especially song, is often the most lasting memory in our minds and hearts. Song is also the first prayer many of us learn, before we know the meaning of words, sitting at our mother’s knee or leaning against a sibling in church. Song, perhaps more than any other part of the Christian tradition, carries us when we cannot carry ourselves.
I have had this experience several times, sometimes in church, sometimes alone at home or in the car. When I was recovering from depression 15 years ago, struggling to find new ways to pray, the Taizé chants, gospel songs and sung psalms on cassette tapes in my car brought me back to awareness of God’s presence. I sang along as I drove. Prayer in silence or words was almost impossible for me at the time. Praying in song steered me home.
This message is adapted from “Praying in Song” written by Jane Redmont in the July/August 2010 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.
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