Denny,
It was not intended as adhominen, or as Brad took it being funny. Though it might have been taken as both. I was and still am in dead earnest. Why? Well, I noticed how taken you were by the saints prayer, and was curious to know if you yourself wrote out prayers like this. What is called a crafted prayer. Only over the last week or so my wife and I discovered a really interesting lecture on this very topic and whilst walking at a place high in the mountains by a very peaceful lake we discussed this. We then listened to the rest of the lecture while on our way home. (Morning Devotion.)

Well, the story that the lecturer told was very profound and made me understand that crafted prayer can certainly give one great courage and help one to pray through areas of difficulty. One can have special prayers for member of the family, for one's spouse, for one's close friends etc. Prayers that capture the essense of the problem that the Lord might have opened your eyes to pray about.

He explained that he had fallen on hard times and was forced to take a job as a grave digger. His associate diggers decided he needed a little lesson, sort of an initiation, and while he was digging one day they removed the ladder. It was raining and they left him in this pit for about eight hours. During this time he spent most of his time praying as the level of the water rose, finally they dropped the ladder down and he surfaced muddy and broken but he admitted that his prayer life had changed in dynamic ways. It was out of this that the Lord showed him about crafted prayers. So forget about my funny comment and let's go with Pilgrim's excellent reference.

This link gives some of the prayers. I bought a little book and have been exploring this idea of writing out prayers, not that I will not pray the spontaneous ones too, but it is most enlightening and I have already found that some of the prayers I might certainly use again, or even pray regularly.

Here is a link to some of the prayers in the book Pilgrim linked too.

http://www.oldlandmarks.com/puritan.htm