Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Prayer - B.A.P.T.I.S.M

Recently I came across this post in a blog by a seminarian in Miami. He managed to come up with an acronym, that he uses in his catechism classes to teach the different kinds of prayer.

What I've learnt in the past was that there were prayer could be classified into 4 main categories. Praise, Adoration, Intercession and Thanksgiving. But looking at his acronym B.A.P.T.I.S.M sounds like quite a good way to remember, with the few additions.

B = Blessing (to invoke God’s power for a person, place or activity)
A = Adoration (the “created” before the Creator)
P = Praise (glorify God)
T = Thanksgiving (gratitude)
I = Intercession (I ask God for OTHERS) + Petition (I ask God for ME)
S = “Sorry” (ask for forgiveness)
M = Mass (Eucharist source and summit of our faith)
I changed the "M" from Meditation to Mass, as I've always learnt that the Eucharist/Mass is the highest form of prayer.

Its great to see creative ways of making the faith easier to understand and remember. And also to make it more interesting to teach the faith. I remember doing one for a confirmation retreat, on Christian living using the acronym S.A.C.R.A.M.E.N.T. But can't really recall what each stands for. Must go and find if I still have the session notes stored somewhere.

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