Prayer, Pilgrimage and Celebrations

The same question, three more times

You have met the question that runs through this whole part of the course, in the module on worship and the sacraments: does the action DO something, or does it SHOW something? ⭐ It does not stop there. Prayer divides along exactly the same line, and so does pilgrimage. If a set prayer carries something in its own words, then saying those words carefully matters. If prayer is a person speaking honestly to God, then the words are theirs to choose and a fixed form may even get in the way. Pilgrimage splits the same way. Either the place itself offers something that cannot be had at home, or no place is holier than any other and the journey can only express what the traveller already brings. ⚠️ Celebrations add something new, and it is worth watching for. A festival is not chosen in a moment of need. IT ARRIVES ON A DATE, whether or not anybody feels like it, which raises a question the first one cannot answer.

Two ways to understand prayer

Christians pray in set words and in their own words, and most use both. The interesting part is the reasoning, because each practice makes sense given what it takes prayer to be. Neither column is the Christian view of prayer. Both are held within Christianity.

Order a pattern of prayer

Many Christians are taught a pattern for praying, moving through four kinds of prayer in this order. Arrange them.

• Adoration, praising God for what God is held to be
• Confession, admitting what has gone wrong
• Thanksgiving, giving thanks for what has been received
• Supplication, asking for what is needed, for oneself and for others

Two views of pilgrimage

Some Christians make long journeys to particular places; others hold that such journeys are unnecessary. Which explanation best accounts for the difference?

• They disagree about whether the place itself offers something that cannot be had at home, or whether the journey can only express a faith the traveller already has
• Some Christians can afford to travel and others cannot
• Those who go are more committed than those who stay at home
• Pilgrimage is simply an old custom that some groups have kept and others have forgotten

Words for this part of the course

Five terms, defined so that you can use them in a sentence rather than only recognise them.

Find the sentence that gives a reason

A student writes about pilgrimage. Select the ONE sentence that explains a position rather than describing or judging it.

• Some Christians travel long distances to visit particular places.
• Other Christians do not go on pilgrimage at all.
• Those who do not go often hold that God is equally present everywhere, so a journey cannot bring somebody closer to God than they already are at home.
• I think going on a pilgrimage sounds like a very meaningful thing to do.
• Pilgrimages can take several weeks and can be physically demanding.

What repetition does

A festival returns on the same date every year. Three of these five are genuine arguments people make about what that yearly repetition does. Choose the three.

• Repeating something every year can wear its meaning away until it is done without thought
• Repetition is what carries a meaning across a whole lifetime and from one generation to the next
• Because it arrives on a date, it does not depend on anybody feeling ready for it, which some hold is its strength
• Keeping a festival proves that a person believes what it celebrates
• A festival obliges everybody in a country to take part in it

Two questions for this topic

Questions here often name a practice you have not revised. Two questions will get you most of the way. ⭐ Is this action understood as doing something, or as showing something? ⭐ And if it happens on a fixed date, what does the repetition do to it? Then say WHO holds the view. Marks come from attributing a position and explaining its reasoning, never from deciding which position is right. ⚠️ The same pair works on the rites that mark a life, which has a module of its own.

Match the practice to the reasoning behind it

The birthday nobody feels like having

Leave religion aside for a moment. A family keeps a birthday every year for somebody they lost. The same date. The same walk up the same hill. The same terrible cake that the person actually liked. Nobody planned it as a tradition; it simply happened twice and then it was one. ⭐ Ask whether it is worth keeping and you get both answers honestly. One year somebody says it has become hollow, that they walked up the hill thinking about parking, and that doing a thing because the date says so is the opposite of meaning it. And the same year somebody else says that this is exactly the point. That there are years when nobody could have summoned the will to arrange anything, and the date arranged it for them. That the children who never met the person know the hill. ⚠️ Both of them are right, and they are not really disagreeing about the walk. They are disagreeing about whether meaning comes from what you feel at the time or from what gets carried forward. ⭐⭐ Hold that argument in mind and you already understand the hardest question in this part of the course.

Complete the prayer and pilgrimage facts

A prayer said in given words that do not change is called a _____ prayer, while prayer in words chosen at the time is called _____. Prayer offered on behalf of somebody else rather than oneself is _____. A journey made to a place held to be significant, undertaken as an act of faith, is a _____, and Christians disagree about it for the same reason they disagree about the sacraments: whether the place offers something or whether the journey expresses a faith already held. A celebration kept at a fixed point in the year is a _____, and because it arrives on a date rather than being chosen, it raises a separate question about what yearly _____ does to meaning.

Build the explanation

Complete an explanation of why two Christians take opposite views of pilgrimage.

Practices quick-fire

Five quick decisions. Three lives.

Answer a question you did not revise

An exam question asks about a Christian practice kept at a fixed time of year that you have not revised in detail. Work through it.

• You do not know the details of this particular festival. What do you do first?
• You have a position. How do you develop it into a paragraph?
• The question asks you to evaluate. What earns the marks?

Evaluate a practice kept every year

Some people argue that a practice repeated on the same date every year loses its meaning. Evaluate that view, using Christian prayer, pilgrimage and festivals in your answer.

• Explain the argument that repetition wears meaning away, and why somebody might hold it
• Explain the argument that repetition is what carries meaning across a lifetime and between generations
• Use one example from prayer and one from pilgrimage or festivals, attributing each view
• Use the terms set prayer, extempore prayer and pilgrimage correctly
• Reach a judgement and support it, remembering that no position is being marked as the right one