Sophomore World Literature Prayer Assignment

World Literature Prayer Assignment

Each day, a different student will lead the class in prayer. There will be three parts to our daily prayer. The first will be reading a selection from the Tao te Ching, one of our class texts. We will read them in order, starting at One and working our way up to (I hope) Eighty-One. Everyone needs to bring this book to class every single day. Please have the same translation – the one by Jane English and Gia-Fu Feng.

The second part of the prayer requires you to puzzle out what that day’s reading means. Essentially you are interpreting and translating it for us into simple language. Feel free to use the notes in the back of the text, if there are notes for your particular reading, to help you with this, though your thinking and interpretation must be your own.

The third part of the prayer involves you constructing a prayer that is an extension of this reading. This might involve you writing your own prayer or meditation, finding a scripture (or other) reading that is related to the section from the Tao te Ching, playing a song, showing a picture for a meditation, or the like. It is very wide open, and you should use your creativity for this assignment. The idea is to use the reading from the Tao te Ching to set the tone for our prayer. It will serve the same purpose that an epigraph does in a work of literature. Additionally, when appropriate, you should make your prayer relevant to our school, city, national, or world community.

Regardless of what you choose to do, you need to come to class prepared ahead of time, and your prayer plan needs to be written up clearly and explicitly – you will turn it in. If it isn’t typed, you will only receive half credit. If you do not use the correct Tao reading, you will receive no credit. Use the examples I have provided on the back as your model, and follow that format as well, if you wish to earn full credit. Remember, these are only examples – follow the format, but the content of each person’s prayer may differ greatly.

This assignment is worth 100 points. You will be graded on your preparation, the depth of thought displayed, the quality and clarity of the writing in your prayer plan, how accurately you interpret that day’s reading, and, especially, how well your prayer ties in with the reading from the Tao. I would suggest preparing this assignment many days in advance, as the essence of the selection from the Tao te Ching may not be readily apparent on first reading.











Two Sample Assignments:
Jeff Baird
World Literature
Mr. Baird
Period 1
Prayer Assignment
Reading: 1

Interpretation: Those things that are transcendent and eternal are impossible to name because the words we use are inadequate. We say “God” or “Tao”, but these labels only incompletely describe that which we speak of. The transcendent must be experienced to be understood. Language alone cannot capture transcendent ideas and experiences.

Prayer: A reading from the Gospel according to John.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Lord, our God, help us to know your holy name. Help us to focus on the things that are transcendent, rather than focusing on the transitory material things of this world. We pray in your holy name, Amen.


Jeff Baird
World Literature
Mr. Baird
Period 1
Prayer Assignment
Reading: 2

Interpretation: Duality is a central component of life: black and white, high and low, good and evil. These things are not separate, but different sides of the same whole. If not for ugliness, we could not know beauty; if not for sorrow, we could never know happiness.

Prayer:

Lord God,

Help us to embrace hardship, so we can know happiness. Help us to embrace hard work, so we can know leisure. Help us to embrace sadness, so we can know happiness. And bless us that we can always feel of your presence.

Help us to remember the words of your Son, Jesus:
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted…
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy…
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We pray this in your name. Amen.