O God, hasten to my aid*

It's nearly the end of term and I'm looking forward to a leave next year, during which I am going to be working on a book on the medieval practice of prayer. Strictly speaking, there is no need for me to tell you about this, but I had the thought if I started a blog, perhaps I might find others who were likewise interested in thinking about prayer. So now I've spent the past hour looking at the screen, wondering what to say and realizing that this desire to speak is all too closely akin to my habit of keeping a diary when I was younger. If nobody reads this blog other than God, will my prayer work? I find I envy those bloggers, like my brother (frieswithmayonnaise), who seem to be able to see a blog as a form of publication and so write polished observations on life around them that others might, in fact, want to read. I fear my postings here will be much more internally directed, but I want to try and use this space as a way of exploring aspects of prayer that might not otherwise find a place in my book. Perhaps my prayer for others to speak to will be answered as well, as my collection of observations grows and I find ways of saying what it is that I want to say. For the moment, dear reader, excuse the clumsiness of this introduction. It's my first time on the strip and I don't know how to hold my foil.