Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

When we got together at the very end of the summer and made a list of the topics y'all wanted to cover in Youth, one of those topics was the subject of prayer, and how we as Episcopalians and Anglicans pray. The latin phrase that titles this post is, in essence, the short answer to that question.

Lex orandi, lex credendi.

Literally translated it means, "the law of praying, the law of believing". Author Fr. Jeff Lee writes it several ways, "the law of prayer establishes the law of belief," or, "the way we pray shapes what we believe."

I think that last one gives the clearest idea of the notion. For the next couple of months, we will be taking a look at the words of our various prayers in the Book of Common Prayer, 1979 and talking about what they mean to us, what they say about God, about us, about our relationship with Jesus Christ, where they came from, and why it is important that they are written down in a book.

-Fr. Ryan