Prayerful Punctuation

Did anyone else ever grow up confused about the meaning of “In the name of ______________________, amen?”*. Did you have a tough time figuring that out, like I did? It’s because of bad punctuation.

*(Sorry for the blanks here– I’m just a bit squeamish about repeating the Savior’s name multiple times for a post that is mostly, well, trifling)

For some reason, Mormons put a comma between the name of the Lord and the amen. This gives an unnatural structure to our prayers, that looks like this:

1. Salutation
2. Body of prayer
3. Amen, which is said “in the name of ____________.”

You see the problem? Because of that comma, it looks like the Amen is said in the Savior’s name, rather than the prayer. It’s its own sentence, in which the first clause (The Savior’s name) introduces and qualifies the second clause (amen). We announce the amen by stating that it is said in His name. Does this make sense to anyone?

Of course not. We say prayers in the Savior’s name, not amens. Thus, the proper structure of the prayer is:

1. Salutation
2. In the name of _____________, we say the following:
3. Body of prayer
4. Amen.

Of course, the placement of number 2 here need not come where it does. It can come after the body of the prayer, as is normally done. The important thing to remember is that we invoke the name of the Savior in saying the prayer, not in saying the amen.

That’s why the final sentence needs to be two sentences. It needs a period, not a comma. Thus, we get: “We ask these things in the name of _____________.(period!) Amen.” That’s a huge improvement. The period can be denoted vocally by using terminal tones in the right spots, or by a decent sized pause. It may make you uncomfortable for a minute, realizing that in reality the Amen is just dangling out there, its own beast, doing its own thing. Makes you wonder what it means anyway. But at least we’re not dragging the Savior’s name into the confusion now.

I’m often tempted to announce whose name I am praying in at the beginning or middle of a prayer, and then close with a lonely, conclusive amen. There is no reason to think that this would be improper at all. Go review the sacramental prayers to see a beautiful example of what I’m talking about.

Still, there’s no need to raise a lot of eyebrows by going against the grain and doing it that way. Just insert the period, and you’re set. Pray in the name of the savior. Say amen without it. Deal? Now go forth and punctuate.

22 thoughts on “Prayerful Punctuation

  1. What can be especially confusing is priesthood blessings that open by stating the authority by which the blessing is given, and in whose name it is given, and which just end. Nothing wrong with it, just very jarring. I’m occasionally tempted to do this, just because there’s nothing wrong with it, but I never have — on the occasions where I begin a blessing stating in whose name it is given, I repeat at the close.

  2. Good point, Ryan. It’s a little awkward. It also bothers me that it’s so routinized. It’s at the end of talks, lessons, everything. It’s weird when it’s not there. But, when it’s so routinized, it loses all meaning (or at least a lot of it).

    Is there any way around that?

    (I also don’t repeat “amen” when a crappy talk or false doctrine is presented. I don’t want things to be as the speaker did in these cases, so why say “amen”?)

  3. The punctuation never threw me, but the phrase itself still does. When I speak in somebody else’s name, I am saying what they would say if they were present. With that in mind, the phrase works fine in the baptismal prayer, in blessings, and even at the end of talks (although it strikes me as presumptuous in the last context). It makes no sense to me in personal or group prayers. In that case, we are giving Christ permission to speak to the Father in our names. Shouldn’t our phrasing reflect that? Perhaps, “through” instead of “in the name of”?

  4. (I also don’t repeat “amen” when a crappy talk or false doctrine is presented. I don’t want things to be as the speaker did in these cases, so why say “amen”?)

    I practiced this form of protest last time a member spent 15 minutes on Fast Sunday telling us about her new grandchildren, without even attemting to tie it into the Gospel. It makes me feel a little better.

  5. Like anybody says amen anymore after a talk or prayer. Sometimes I feel like the only one ever saying it at the end of a talk. Maybe everybody else hears false doctrines and I don’t.

  6. I recall, once on my mission, I gave a prayer, where at one point I said something like “we thank you for the only name under heaven where we can be saved, your son ____________” and was about to move on to “and for all we have” etc. etc. but at that moment, half the congreation said “Amen” and started moving around. I was so stunned I just stopped and sat down.

    But because of that, i make sure I listen to prayers very carefully, so I don’t fall into the mindless repition of “amen.”

  7. lemming:
    D&C 46:30-31
    if we pray as we are influenced py the holy ghost to pray, instead of praying for what we think we need, not only will we learn to listen more closely to the Spirit, and learn the differences between our needs and wants better, but we will actually be praying the things Christ would have prayed were he in our position. we can than confidently pray in His name with a firm amen.

  8. ” In that case, we are giving Christ permission to speak to the Father in our names”

    Really? I think we’re speaking to the Father directly and, hopefully, speaking as Christ would, and also hoping that, because we’re stepping into Christ’s role in speaking to the Father, that He will listen to us.

  9. Christ invited us to ask for things in his name. So we do. On a related note, is thanking or praising really praying?

  10. John, I don’t see why not, unless you are asking about the most literal sense of the verb ‘to pray’ (as in ‘to pray for relief’). But by the lights of the restored gospel, there’s no question that a request for something and an expression of gratitude are equally at home in our conversations with God.

  11. can’t we talk to God about the things we are grateful for and praise his name to him in prayer? I think so! He is not passionless God of no feelings, but would simply sometimes like to have small talk with us which usually talks about thanks and praise of his goodness and long suffering. Pray indeed about being grateful and praise his name, He loves to hear about that I am sure!!

  12. Did anyone else ever grow up confused about the meaning of

    . . .
    Not punctuation related but certainly pronunciation related:

    For years in primary while singing “As I Have Loved You” I wondered what the heck a “shallmenno” was.

    You know, “By this shallmennow /shall men know/ ye are my disciples. As ye have loved one to another.”

  13. Remember when we used to sing “How Firm a FOundation” and we said “yoo-hoo” unto Jesus?

  14. To say nothing of my daughter, who sang, at the top of her voice:

    “I am a child of God, and so my knees are grey!”

    I thought it was funny until I saw that the missionaries’ blue suits were greyish at the knees from kneeling in prayer. Maybe she knew more than I knew.

  15. El Jefe, you *GOT* to send in the “so my knees are grey” story to the Ensign.

  16. I think it’s worth using different locutions to remind us of what we’re actually saying. There is nothing talismanic about the traditional formulation Ryan refers to here. I often close a prayer with, “… we pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.”

  17. Not to get too far off the subject, but did the RMs out there ever have trouble teaching investigators (particularly those who spoke Spanish) to pray to “Heavenly Father” (or the cultural equivalent – “Nuestro Padre Celestial” in this case).

    I was interviewing a grandmother for baptism; other elders in the branch had taught the family. She was very evangelical (not catholic) and was used to praying to the Son (and all matter of synonyms). It was a point of emphasis during the baptismal interview that we review that we were to pray to the Father. The interview went well, except that I had to go over again how we pray. Everything resolved, right? A month later, the branch has another baptism, and this grandmother was invited to say the closing prayer at the service. I remember thinking, “this is her first prayer/talk in front of the congregation — big moment of truth”. It went like this:

    (Head bowed, arms folded, reverenty)
    “Nuestro Padre Celestial” [Our Heavenly Father]

    (Suddenly arms raised, looking heavenward, very loudly)
    “O J—C—–, nuestro salvador, quien vive en los cielos” [Oh, J—- C—–, our savior, who lives in the heavens”

    The rest of the prayer resembled a televangelist. Meanwhile, I’m in a cold sweat, since I’ve got an investigator there for the first time.

    At the end, she concluded NOT with the customary, “en el nombre de JC, amen”. She concluded with the forceful “Ahhh-Men”. I stood there like a statue, silent.

    And the congregation repeated after her, loudly, with feeling: “Ahhh-Men”.

    Habits die hard.

  18. One of the reasons for the restoration, as declared by the Lord in Section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants, is so that “every man may speak in the name of God, the Lord, even the Savior of the world.”

    Last Lemming, your concern is spot on: what you say in the name of the Lord ought in fact to be what He would say if He were here. The authority and the knowledge have been restored. It’s up to those who speak in his name to get it right.

    As the Lord said in Section 63:

    61 Wherefore, let all men beware how they take my name in their lips—

    62 For behold, verily I say, that many there be who are under this condemnation, who use the name of the Lord, and use it in vain, having not authority.

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