In the Hail Mary prayer, I used to say 'Bless a dark fowl among women' rather than 'blessed art though'

Anon

when i was little and saying my prays at night, i used to imagine god sitting in a big thrown in heaven on a cloud, a small table next to him with an answering machine on it. each night i imagined him going though all his prays, and listening to mine.

mikaelyn

I used to belive that if I said my prayers at night God put up a powerfull bubble that protected me from monsters.

Eve

When I was young we started attending church for a few years. I had never been in a church before, and was actually half-Jewish. Every Sunday the pastor would ask everyone to "say the prayer the Lord taught us", meaning The Lord's Prayer. Because he introduced it like that, and because nobody looked in their hymnals while they said it, I thought that it was so sacred that it wasn't allowed to be written down. I thought there was some long, mysterious ceremonial process to learning it, and that we would never be allowed to learn it or say it, since we weren't "really" Presbyterians. (To my mind, you weren't "really" a certain religion unless you were born into it.) I found it in a book at the library and memorized it in secret, as an act of adolecent rebellion. I couldn't for the life of me understand why Mom was proud when I spontaniously recited it to her after a fight.

propchick

at the end of a prayer in school assemblies i thought you had to say amen really loudly otherwise you would get in trouble with the teacher. We all used to sit on the floor in assemblies and i thought you had to bend over as much as possible (so your head was really near your feet) otherwise the teachers thought you weren't praying

bend and break

I used to believe that God's name was Harold, because when we said the Lords Prayer at primary school, I thought it was 'Our Father who art in Heaven, Harold be thy name'

Brenda

I used to believe that if you talked after saying your bedtime prayers the prayers would be null and void and you would have to say them all over again.

dee

This is my mothers:
When she was young, she went to a Catholic school, and one of the prayers that they had to say mentioned that God "livest and reignest, forever and ever, amen". My mother was very shocked to hear that God "livest down drainest" and wondered why he couldn't have picked a more pleasant spot to reside, being God and all.

Lara

As a child 40+ years ago, my family would drive many hours on the New York State Thruway to the MA Turnpike to visit my 'Bubbie' (grandmother). She was an Orthodox Jew. I really believed that prayers I said to G-d on the MA Turnpike somehow had more power than those I said at the Temple, my home or the New York State Thruway. I thought my communications with G-d were really and truely only 'heard' by Him when I saw the "Welcome to MA" sign during my family's travels to Bubbie's house.

Cheryl

When I was a little kid ithought that when you prayed you prayers went into a bubble and floated into heaven then when god wanted to hear them he would pop them. I was so afraid of sendim=ng him to many that he would be mad! So i only prayed a couple times a day until i was like 9!

Alyssa

my youngest brother used to believe
that the reason we said grace
before meals was to
cool the food down.
our food was rarely
piping hot, but if it was
you'd catch him doing the sign of the cross
and saying grace several times in
a row so to make the temperature drop.
of course, in the time it took him to recite
the prayer a few times over, the food
was generally cooler anyway.

vanessa

During Mass in the Catholic church the priest would offer up prayers which we would respond, "Thanks be to God". I used to think that the response was "Thanks pretty God". It made sense to me. Why wouldn't we compliment God?

Natasha H

Upp untill I was about 7 every time I went to church I would say "almond" instead of amen because I thought that was what everyone was saying. One day my mum had some almonds and she asked me if I wanted one and I started crying because I thought she meant we had to go to church (I didnt like it)

L.W.

My sister and I used to cut across someone's lawn on our way to piano lessons. She convinced me it was okay because the Lord's prayer clearly says, "forgive us our trespasses."

Stephen

I used to believe that if I didn't pray to God every night, and specifically ask that the house not get burned down, that it would catch fire in the night.

Pixelfish

i used to believe that God was going to make me marry someone at school that i really didnt like and so u used to pray every time i decided i didnt like a boy "please dont make me fall in love with, or marry so-in-so when i grow up..nuts!

andrea

"Our father, who AREN'T in heaven."

Dead people went to heaven, but I figured maybe God lived some place even higher. But I still didn't understand the bad grammar.

Anon

When my brother-in-law was young, he thought the priest was saying: "Dominic, go frisk 'em" instead of Dominus Vobiscum.

Linda

From the prayer "Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy name." A friend of mine (age 6 at the time) used to think it was "Howard be Thy name" and he used to think it was really cool that God's name was Howard and that's how he prayed to Him.

Matt

i was only taught how to say Hail Mary in Chinese, but somehow during the meal, my family always say it in English. As a kid, I tried to catch up as much as I could, and for quite a long while, my English version of Hail Mary was: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blesssssssss..... fruitssss...Jesus....ssssss.....death. Amen

anon