Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the relationship between internal mental events and their external forms of symbolisation in the prayers of an Irish Catholic community. The hypothesis is that in order to be meaningful prayers have to strike a subtle balance between their internal and external dimensions.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary analysis of the experience of prayer in the everyday life of an Irish community. Apparently, prayer is one of the most salient and ubiquitous religious acts in the community. But its mainly mental nature poses complex theoretical and empirical problems for the ethnographer. This paper will concentrate on the relationship between internal mental events and their external forms of symbolisation. The hypothesis is that in order to be meaningful and effective prayers have to struck a subtle balance between both their internal and external dimensions.