Praying with the Synagogue

Today we went to a Bat Mitzvah.  It made me think about a lot of different things.

One of the things that always strikes me is how similar the prayers are (well, except that ours are in English!) And that is, of course, by design.   These are the prayers Jesus prayed.  These are the prayers that he would’ve said with his disciples at the Synagogue.   

And just like the disciples continued to read the Old Testament in their new community which would come to be called the church, they continued to say many of the same prayers.  Again, as with Holy Scripture, they understood the references differently, but they said the prayers just the same.  They would be modified over time, as the Holy Scriptures would also come to include the New Testament, but many of the phrases and much of the wording would continue on unchanged.

I appreciated, therefore, the sense of continuity I felt with what God has been doing down through the ages, and the profound connection with his people across the years.