Many of our ways of praying we learn when we worship together on Sundays. This round-towered Saxon-based church in Quidenham, Norfolk, has been used by Christians for over a thousand years.

A church is sacred space. It is God's house. It is different from our own house with its spaces for eating, sleeping, recreating and so on.

When we gather in God's house it is to pray. We give thanks. We make requests. We express sorrow. We seek to reflect back the love that has been set in our hearts. We have been called. Heart speaks to heart. We seek to share Christ's work in the world.

God's house is entered with a sign of the cross made with holy water, a reminder of our baptism.

God's house is full of signs of minds and hearts uplifted. The candles, flowers. The coloured windows. The sound of music. A smell of incense. Worshippers touch statues. The priest kisses the altar. Worshippers stand, sit, kneel; they bow, they genuflect. They sing; they pray aloud; they go into profound silence. There is dialogue between priest and people.

There is a dynamic, a drift in the worship. We start as sinners asking to be forgiven. 'Lord have mercy'  we say many times. Forgiven, we praise; we listen intently to God's Word and reflect on it. We declare our creed and intercede for God's Church and God's World We proclaim our faith in the eucharist. We make some gesture of peace with one another before we go to Communion and return to the world

NOTICE THE VERY GREAT VARIETY OF WAYS OF PRAYING WE EXPERIENCE IN CHURCH