Did you recite the Lord's Prayer at school?

I have a feeling that schools were obliged to have an act of worship every morning. The teachers varied from fundamental Christians, to ones who didn't care a jot about religion. Can't remember saying the Lord's prayer - at least not very often. I was made to say it at home, though typically my parents couldn't say why. They were like that, they just did things because that's what you did. I'd sort of forgotten about it and certainly haven't said it in over 50 years.

There were only a few Catholics at my school and one Catholic teacher. We've no idea what they did. Catholicism was regarded as next door to Devil worship.
 

Capt Lightning said:
There were only a few Catholics at my school and one Catholic teacher. We've no idea what they did. Catholicism was regarded as next door to Devil worship.
Click to expand...
In Louisiana there were lots of Catholics, in Florida not so many. Didn't know much about their religion, but never really thought of them as different. Except maybe they threw better parties, like Mardi Gras.

For that matter, maybe due to parental influence, we never thought of any Christian or even Jewish as much different. The shock came when a Muslim moved into the neighborhood. Nice people, father was an engineer and they had a son my age. We fished together, I just remembered feeling bad that they were going to have to go to hell, despite being good people... That was a long time ago.
 
I went to parochial school and of course was taught all the prayers. I'm not sure of when we recited them, but I do remember the pledge of allegiance to the flag, and singing the Pennsylvania anthem. Prayers I had to learn in Latin having been an altar boy.
 

JustDave said:
Were there any teachers that commented on the Bible verses anyway? This whole thing sounds strange to me. It's like inviting a challenge to separation of church and state.
Click to expand...
I never heard any comments on the content of the religious stuff or the Pledge. Of course, how could I know what was going on in other classrooms?

If the teachers did make any "comments," they would probably be more like: "Cut that out, Billy."
 
Yes we did, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. And when I was in elementary schools, we sang "America," which started out:
"My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing."

 
Cannot remember any prayers in infants (K to 2) or primary schools (3 to 6) but at school assemblies in secondary school (7 to 11) we sang God Save the Queen which was then the national anthem of Australia and on some occasions the 23rd psalm (Crimond). For Anzac Day we sang "O God our help in Ages Past" and "God of our fathers, known of old" (Rudhard Kipling's Recessional). I can't remember whether or not we said the Lord's Prayer but we could have.
 
Yes we did before class started every morning ....the Catholic version

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

...always followed by a Hail Mary....
 
Back in the 50's we would recite daily The Pledge of Allegiance and sometimes the Lord's Prayer, I think. When I went to school in Florida, we did the prayer every day. I didn't really think about either one that much. It just seemed like something you did in class every day, like call of attendance.
 
We didn't have kindergarten at all when I was in school, that's how old I am.
What I want to know, for those who didn't have prayers, how did you pass notes?
 


Back
Top