There are two other "prayers" that I have learned to make part of my daily prayers. The first one is "Lord have mercy on me" and is called "The Jesus Prayer." I think that I first saw it in the book, The Way of the Pilgrim. Some people take it from the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, others from the Canaanite woman who had a sick daughter, and still others from Bartholomew, the blind man outside the city of Jericho. It seems to have become a prayer of the early desert fathers and from there, it became important in the Orthodox churches. Many people have used it as a "centering prayer," one that they repeat over and over. I, instead, try to make it a point to pray those words early in the morning. It is designed to open my heart to God as I realize that I am like everyone else who comes to him, in need of mercy.
The second "prayer" I got from what I understand is a Jewish custom. Scot McKnight says that three times a day, people who are serious about their Jewish faith will repeat the Shema, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." But we know that Jesus added something else to this foundational scripture. Jesus said that there is a second commandment that is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This was a scripture found in Leviticus 19: 18, tucked away with a lot of dos and don'ts that make Leviticus a tough book to get through. But Jesus says that this little command is like the great Shema.
So, I also have made it my practice to pray the two commands that Jesus says that "all the law depends on." It is a reminder and my prayer to God to help me love him and love others - that boils our task down to the essentials, doesn't it?
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