Prayer

Jesus taught us to call God ‘our Father’, and to place our daily needs before him with confidence in his loving care for us. Prayer is at the heart of the Christian life. Without it our relationship with God will not grow.

At the Clandon Churches there are many opportunities to grow in relationship with God through prayer.

Daily prayer in church

The parish priest prays morning prayer in the church of St Peter and St Paul on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays at 8.30am, and in the church of St Thomas of Canterbury on Thursdays at 9.30am. If you would be interested in joining him and would like to find out more please contact him on 01483 222 573, or send him an email.

Both East and West Clandon churches are open every day for private prayer, or even just for a peaceful visit.

Spiritual Direction

Some members of the congregation who want to grow in prayer might be interested in spiritual direction. Barnaby, the parish priest would be happy to talk to you about this and explore whether he or someone else might be able to help you develop your spiritual life.

Developing a regular pattern of prayer

Many people want to know how to develop a regular pattern of prayer at home. The best thing to do is to start small. Learning to pray is like learning a language, it is best learnt by doing it, little and often. As one great spiritual director once wrote, “Pray as you can, not as you can’t”.

Perhaps start setting aside five minuets each day, read a short passage from one of the Gospels (the Gospel of St Luke is a great place to start). Ask yourself: how does this passage help me understand God better? And how does it help me understand myself better? Ponder that for a moment and then pray the Lord’s prayer. See where things go from there. If you feel like you want to spend longer, go for it. If five minutes is too much, don’t feel guilty. Better to pray for 30 seconds every day than feel guilty because you can’t manage longer and not pray at all.

In the Church of England there are frameworks for prayer to help priests and lay people commit to a patter of daily prayer. This is sometimes called ‘The Daily Office’, you might have also heard of ‘Matins’ (or morning prayer) and ‘Evensong’ (or evening prayer). These can be really helpful, but might feel a bit much to start with. If you would like to try out a daily pattern of prayer you can find a short form of daily prayer by clicking here.

Requesting prayer

If you would like us to remember you or a loved one in our prayers, please click the button below and fill out the form with your prayer request.