More prayers for Pentecost

English Our Father (Mt. Olives)_2150
Originally uploaded by hoyasmeg

In my sermon for the Day of Pentecost, I referenced the practice of praying the Lord's Prayer in different languages. Simultaneously. I first experienced this when I spent a semester at a church in Montreal, where it was customary, in the student group, to pray the Lord's Prayer in whatever language you knew best. This is a beautiful practice, although also a bit confusing when you do it for the first time! It is a wonderful thing to be able to pray in your own language, while also praying with others who prefer a different language.

This reminded me of a great web resource. The Convent of the Pater Noster has this fantastic site where you can look up the Lord's Prayer in, as of now, 1,449 languages and dialects. Many (not all) of these languages are presented with a photo from the Convent, located on the Mount of Olives, which has plaques showing the prayer in many different languages. It even has a few in constructed languages (Esperanto is the only one with its own plaque).

So, if you know another language, you can look it up, and perhaps gain a little more insight into speakers of that language who are also our brothers and sisters in Christ. And when you are done with serious studying...there's always Elvish or Klingon.

~Pastor Sarah