Little Prayers as a Unique Form of Family Prayer

Abstract

The contemporary way of living allows for less and less family togetherness and family prayer time. The family has been reduced to a nuclear unit consisting of parents burdened by their jobs and the everyday rhythm of life, and of children burdened by school and after–school activities which have been imposed on them. Grandparents do not have the role they once had in the traditional way of life. Our oral literary tradition is perhaps the most explicit testimonial to the elements, purpose, scope and effects of the traditional way of life. Aspects of family prayer life in the past can be gleaned from the phenomenon of little prayers. These are a unique genre in Croatian religious oral literature and are not merely a relic of the past, a folklore ornament, but as this paper aims to demonstrate, a precious signpost from the past to the future. Through an interdisciplinary approach, by taking into account achievements in the field of religious upbringing, ethnology, folkloristics, theory of literature and theory of culture, the paper brings to the reader’s attention the valuableness of little prayers in family life and in the upbringing of young generations. In the twilight of Postmodernism, the post–postmodernist period, we see a renewed search for authenticity. In this context, little prayers are the expression of a return to one’s roots.