Every day at noon, Providence Academy students stand up and pray the Our Father together. When they stand up a deafening (screech) rings out from the chairs as they get pushed out from under the students’ desks. This brings everyone to attention to be ready to pray. The screech is so loud that you can actually hear it from outside of the school.
Ever since Providence Academy was founded in 2001, PA staff and students have been praying the Our Father at noon.
Dr. Flanders stated that this tradition is “truly unifying.” He continued, saying, “praying always and together (…) brings us together.”
At noon throughout the world, the Universal Church prays the angelus, which is a prayer commemorating the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Although PA does not pray the angelus with the Universal Church it still participates in the tradition of the noon prayer. We pray the Our Father because it is our Lord’s prayer and is shared by many denominations. Dr. Flanders said, “Everybody is familiar with the prayer (…) it immediately resonates within most people”.
I love this article! I know my children pray daily at noon, but I never thought about what it would SOUND LIKE if everyone was doing this at the same time! The logistics of hundreds of people sliding out their chairs to pray. It’s incredible. Plenty of non-Christian religions have daily prayer practices. I consider myself a practicing Catholic, yet I don’t do anything daily at a specific time “consistently”; However this article has inspired me. I plan to set an alarm for noon daily. I’ll stop what I’m doing and pray. I believe this article is highly effective because Seamus looked at a daily ritual of prayer through all five of the senses, including our sense of sound to process the ritual. The result produced a unique perspective. It resonated with me immensely. Thank you so much for your article Seamus.