I'm working on writing two year-and-a-day courses for our coven as well as rounding out our coven's Book of Shadows. As you can imagine, this is quite a task. In addition to writing rituals for a full year of coven work (and structuring them so that they mesh seamlessly with our coven's theology), I find it necessary to construct a course that not only teaches a new covenmate the basics of ritual and magick, but helps them build a personal connection to the divine.
One of the building blocks that we're using in the first set of lessons is the concept of prayer. I was once taught that meditation is how we listen to the deities; prayer is the tool we use to talk to them. As I don't teach anything that I'm not currently practicing myself, I've been making a concerted effort to pray on a daily basis. It's become as much of a habit as welcoming the sun and moon each day.
I keep my prayers simple and they follow a pretty straight-forward format.
First, I address the deity. Given our coven's theology, I actually say four short prayers each morning. First, I pray to Spirit, the gentle, divine force that unites all life. Then I pray to the Goddess. Next I offer separate prayers to each aspect of the God, the Oak King and the Holly King. In our coven's theology, the two dueled at Summer Solstice and the Oak King was slain. Our coven follows a path where the Holly King now reigns for the coming half of the year, from the summer solstice until our winter solstice sabbat. Meanwhile the Oak King slowly descends into the underworld where the gates of the afterlife will open for him at Samhain. For this reason we recognize both aspects of the God as playing a vital role at this time of year - and mirroring this theology, I recognize both aspects of the God in prayer.
The next thing I do is offer a blessing to the deity. For instance, part of our coven's Midsummer (or Litha) ritual was asking the Holly King for separate blessings for ourselves and our coven. I typically use the simple phrase, "May you be blessed as you have blessed myself, my coven, and my covenmates."
If there is something specific that I'm asking for, I would add it after the blessing to the deity. For instance, at our first esbat following our Midsummer sabbat, we asked the Goddess to help our coven's requests unfold in a specific way. Mirroring the language that we used in the rite, I might ask her to, "Continue to guide me with patience, tenderness, compassion and a great deal of love."
Finally, I thank the deity for hearing my prayer and typically sign off with a, "Blessed be."
A simple prayer might be something like this:
"Hail, Holly King. Welcome to your reign. May you be blessed as you've blessed myself, my coven and my covenmates. Thank you for watching over me and hearing my prayer. Blessed be."
Even a more involved prayer would follow roughly the same format:
"Good morning, Spirit. Thank you for the beauty of the natural world, for the love that unites friends and family, and for the gentle guidance you provide to my path. May you be blessed as you have so richly blessed my own life. I ask you to continue to watch over my children (keep them safe and healthy), my home (keep it safe and secure), my finances (keep them in the black), and my spiritual path (help me to learn wisdom and discernment). Continue to guide me by teaching me to understand when opportunities and lessons unfold before me and help me to see the appropriate path for me to take to grow. Thank you for your presence and for hearing my prayer. Blessed be."
Although I'm a big proponent of creating sacred space when doing magickal work - even prayer - there are times when it's simply not feasible to do so. We wake up late, get behind in our morning routine, and before we know it we're running out the door, trying to make it to work on time. Where do I pray? Typically behind the wheel of my car during my morning commute. It's the beginning of forty minutes of uninterrupted time. Even if I have to pause in my prayer to avoid someone who is in a bit too much of a hurry, it's a simple matter to resume the prayer where I left off. It's not important how or when we pray, only that we do so.