Lent is about prayer.  There are a lot of prayers going out from all over the world, and when I think about it, I remember all of the prayers that were said on my behalf when I was in the ICU at Montefiore Hospital last year.  During Lent I have decided to pray for several people every morning and to send them a text to tell them that I prayed for them and wishing them a great day.Currently the confirmation class is studying prayer and learning how to pray, if there is such a thing.  Methods for praying vary in a myriad of ways and there is no set recipe for what makes a good prayer.  Jesus give us a hint, though, in Luke 11: "Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples'.  He said to them, “When you pray, say:...".  He then teaches them what we know to be the Lord's Prayer.The Lord's Prayer is Christianity's greatest prayer.  Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan says the following: "It is also Christianity's strangest prayer.  It is prayed by all Christians but it never mentions Christ. It is prayed by all churches, but it never mentions church.  It is prayed on all Sundays, but it never mentions Sunday.  It is called 'the Lord's Prayer', but it never mentions Lord."Crossan goes on to suggest that the Lord's Prayer is neither a Jewish prayer for Jews nor yet a Christian prayer for Christians.  Instead, could it be a prayer from the heart of Judaism on the lips of Christianity for the conscience of the world?As I say the Lord's Prayer most Sundays, I seem to be rattling it off.  I have done this for years in church.  Yet, if you slow down and take time to focus on each petition, perhaps you can see it as a radical manifesto and a hymn of hope for all of humanity who are residents of this earth.So, let me challenge you to pray, and if you are struggling, pray for me.  I can always use it.  Pastor William Sloane Coffin once said when asked what is holding the world together: "The prayers of all."  I want to be counted in that group because the world needs our prayers as much as I do.MEH