As I have mentioned in the past, the organization that employs me hires a substantial group of seasonal summer staff for its programming.  In an effort to help said staff get to know some of the people not directly involved in their area of programming, each day during lunch, a member of the full time staff is being introduced and invited to pray for the group of seasonal summer staff.  I got picked today.  I didn’t have much time to prepare, and even though I have only been Catholic 5 years, I’ve never been good at spontaneous prayer.  So, I got my hands on a copy of the Prayer of St. Francis and after being introduced as the IT guy, I was handed the microphone and explained that I am not good at spontaneous prayer, especially when praying out loud, but one of the beautiful things about Christianity is all the Saints who have gone before us, who have written down their conversations with God, and that I would be reciting the Prayer of St. Francis; we bowed, I prayed, and at the end I added the sign of the cross.

Bet you’ve never heard people shout amen during a recitation of the Prayer of St. Francis!

(this post’s title is stated with tongue planted firmly in cheek, by the way.)