Length Of Prayers

[urroner]

In the thread about the first woman to give a prayer at General Conference, the topic of the length of prayers came up. The act of giving long, flowery, wordy public prayers heard occasionally in church has stuck in my craw for a long time.

Public prayers shouldn't be long, they ain't sermons!!! Maybe I have it all wrong, but the opening prayer is called an "invocation" in which we ask the Lord to be with us. So here's the Lord waiting on our doorstep to come into our house and we are at the door gabbing on and on about all sorts of things while he is stuck on the doorstep waiting to come in. Dudes and dudettes, a short greeting is awesome. The purpose of church meetings is not about the inviting in, but it's about the meal/feast waiting to be served.

There is a Mormon urban legend about some dude who wanted to give a talk at GC during Brigham Young's days, but he was asked to give a prayer. Supposed the prayer lasted for something like 45 minutes and then BY got up and closed the meeting. I don't know if this is true, but it sure sounds like something BY would do.

Here are a couple of quotes by past leaders of the Church about the length of prayers in public meetings. In essence, short and sweet and to the point is what I get out of them. Of course, being a male type engineer with ADHD probably has nothing to do with my attitude, or as my mom would call it "my baditude."

You can all see that the quotes were found on the BYU-Idaho site, so please take it with a grain of salt...well, maybe a block of salt used for cow licks.

http://emp.byui.edu/...PrayerItems.pdf

Francis M. Lyman, President of the Council of the Twelve, Improvement Era, 50:214, 245; quoted in Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed., p. 583.

It is not necessary to offer very long and tedious prayers, either at opening or closing. It is not only not pleasing to the Lord for us to use excess of words, but also it is not pleasing to the Latter-day Saints.

Two minutes will open any kind of meeting, and a half minute will close it.

We ought to take into account the occasion, and let the prayers be suited exactly to it. Sometimes our habits may control us more strongly than the Spirit of the Lord, so we should consider these things.

Offer short prayers, and avoid vain repetitions, particularly the repetition of the name of Deity, and the name of the Savior. It is quite common to open a prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, to close it in his name, and possibly use his name a few times through the prayer. If we approach the Father, and offer our petitions to him, and then close in the name of Jesus Christ, it is sufficient. There is no prayer so great and important that it is necessary to use more than once the name of the Son of God and of the Father.

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed, p. 582.

Certain proprieties attend the offering of all prayers. Public prayers, in particular, should be short and ordinarily should contain no expressions except those which pertain to the needs and circumstances surrounding the particular meeting then involved. They are not sermons or occasions to disclose the oratorical or linguistic abilities of the one acting as mouth.

Unfortunately the all too common practice in the Church in conference sessions, sacrament meetings, and the like, is for those saying the prayers to take entirely too much time and pray about too many matters not directly involved in the particular meeting.

[dgd]

While Priesthood finished early (well within the 2 hour block of time - not that unusual for Priesthood based on my recollection of past meetings), that benediction was getting pretty long ...

[Calm]

The Lord's Prayer as cited in the scripture is pretty short and is supposed to be the ultimate example of what prayer should be.

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Edited April 7, 2013 by calmoriah