We are One in the Spirit

Today two very awesome things happened during group prayer.

#1
In our weekly chapel we say the Lord's prayer together at the end of the pastoral prayer. Normal stuff, right? Today I noticed that during the Lord's prayer "debts", "sins", and "trespasses" were all used. Instead of conforming to the way a church body normally prays like most people do when they visit a church, the chapel group paused and waited for the longer version to finish before picking up the ending together then paused again to allow some people to say "forever and ever" before saying "amen". This may sound like a little thing that doesn't matter, but to me, this matters. To me this small act of pausing tells me how open to different traditions and beliefs Princeton Seminary is. When I have visited churches that don't use "sins/those who sin against us" I have felt like my prayer was interrupted by the sudden cut off my of sentence. Now, congregations don't mean to cut people off. Most of the time congregations pray the way they've prayed. There's nothing wrong with that. To me, this was a very special, loving, embracing thing.

#2
During a small group prayer in my dorm, every person prayed out loud individually for general or specific things. I think we all prayed for rest and stress relief. When a gal named Sarang began to pray, she prayed in Korean. It took me a second to realize someone was praying in a foreign language, but it was wonderful. Instead of listening to the specific words someone was using, I heard the spirit of the prayer. I was able to keep my mind silent and listen for the Holy Spirit.

"We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord; and we pray that all unity will someday be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love."