The everyday china......................................

     But beautiful pre-assembled prayers - the the Merton, the Lord's Prayer, the Twenty-third Psalm - have saved me more times than I can remember. But they are for special occasions.  They are dressier prayers, the good china of prayers, used when I have my wits about me enough a) to remember that they exist, and b) to get into a state of trust.  This would be approximately seven percent of the time.
     Most good, honest prayers remind me that I am not in charge, that I cannot fix anything, and that I open myself to being helped by something, some force, some friends, some something.  These prayers say, "Dear Some Something.  I don't know what I'm doing.  I can't see where I'm going.  I'm getting more lost, more afraid, more clenched.  Help."
-Anne Lamott,  Help Thanks Wow:  The Three Essential Prayers