Prayer on the Go

May and early June have got to be the busiest times of the year for many of us. And just as soon as we catch our breath, many of us are off to take much-needed family vacations. In the summer, it seems, everyone is on the go.

So what does prayer “on the go” look like? Here are some suggestions:

1. Make the sign of the cross. In a hurry to get out of town on your family vacation? In a hurry to the ball field? Running a last-minute errand for hot dogs and watermelon? Make the sign of the cross over yourself and pray: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

2. Make it a car game. Before playing some of the traditional car games on a long trip, challenge each other to indentify things you see on the way and to pray for those people, things or events as a family.

3. Make a pilgrimage. For hundreds of years, Christians have made pilgrimages to places of significance for our faith. While you may not be traveling to Jerusalem this summer, you may want to visit another local church building, a retreat center, or another place of significance, like a cemetery. Find a local congregation that has a labyrinth and make a prayer walk.

4. Pray a map prayer. Find an area of the world that you would like to pray for and keep that place and its people in your prayers throughout the summer. You may want to consider praying for our missionary, John LeMond, in Hong Kong or our companion synod, the Dodoma Diocese of Tanzania in east Africa.

5. Pray a map prayer II. Use a globe or map and, with eyes closed, pick an area of the world to pray for each week of the summer. The Voice of the Martyrs publishes a global prayer map for areas of the world where Christians are persecuted. Pray for the suffering church!

Keep this page in your glove box this summer, especially the prayer below from our hymnal which can be prayed before travel.

O God, our beginning and our end, you kept Abraham and Sarah in safety throughout the days of their pilgrimage, you led the children of Israel through the midst of the sea, and by a star you led the magi to the infant Jesus. Protect and guide us now as we set out to travel. Make our ways safe and our homecomings joyful, and bring us at last to our heavenly home, where you dwell in glory with our Lord Jesus Christ and the life-giving Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 331)