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When Jesus’ disciples asked him how to pray, he responded with the example of The Lord’s Prayer, which Martin Luther broke into several major themes, including reverence for God, petitions for God’s help, repentance, and a commitment to live in accordance with God’s will for humanity.

If we were truly to pray without ceasing, perhaps we could see our daily habits and choices within these categories. When I stop and appreciate the sunlight through the leaves, I am living a prayer of reverence. When I honk at a stranger in traffic, I am sending a little prayer into the universe that we could all pay a little more attention to one another—and that I need help to chill out.

Isn’t the difference between a prayer and any other kind of communication its intention? If I choose to be intentional in my words and actions, I don’t think I can help but pray without ceasing. In my habits, in my routines, in the books I read, and in the music I listen to, I can choose to pray endlessly in whatever I do, wherever I am.

This message is excerpted from “A prayer without end” by Sarah Carson in the September 2025 Café online magazine. Today we commemorate Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, bishop, renewer of the church, 1872.