Lithuanians and Prayer

Following the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Pew Research Center has published research entitled The Pulse of Europe 2009: 20 years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall.  Themes such as national identity, economy and democracy are covered, along with religion.

In the United States, 55% of people pray daily; in Poland the figure is 32% and in Italy 30%. However, according to the findings, only 13% of Lithuanians pray daily. This is a higher percentage of the population than Bulgarians, Czechs, East Germans and French, but it still means that about 90% of Lithuanian Catholics do not pray on a daily basis.  Why?

The tradition of prayer

Firstly, there is no tradition of worship or praying together within family life. In Soviet times families could not pray together freely. A new generation has grown up in freedom – but it can take decades for these traditions of prayer and worship to become part of the daily routine. According to The Pulse of Europe Survey, only 8% of young people between 18 and 29 years old take religion seriously.

Substitutes for ‘true food’

The numbers of people praying daily may be low, but Lithuanians are not completely materialistic. There is still a fascination with spirituality, reflected by Oriental spirituality, meditation and yoga centres becoming increasingly popular. People are attracted by the chance of a mystical experience and contact with something intangible. This can be compared with junk food. Continually stuffing yourself with hamburgers won’t improve your health, but when you want to get full quickly you don’t worry about the lack of vegetables. Likewise in the spiritual context, real spiritual food has been replaced with the junk food equivalent.

The image of God

It is also worth asking whether people simply don’t know about God. If they view God as an impersonal being, they have no need to pray. After all, communicating with an abstract deity or spiritual force or energy can only be fragmentary. Here pastoral and theological questions overlap. How can people’s Christian identity be maintained without including prayer?

The Pew survey showed that “Lithuania is in desperate need of prayer schools”. So far, some monasteries teach the art of prayer including Benedictine, Bethlehem sisters, Jesuits and Carmelites. However this is a drop in the ocean, and such schools are needed across the whole of Lithuania. Maybe then prayer will become a daily reality for Lithuanians.

Joanne Appleton

Source:

Pew Research Centre