Prayer

Prayer (from the Latin precari "to ask earnestly, beg, entreat") is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication.

Prayer can be a form of religious practice, may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words, song or complete silence. When language is used, prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person. There are different forms of prayer such as petitionary prayer, prayers of supplication, thanksgiving, and praise. Prayer may be directed towards a deity, spirit, deceased person, or lofty idea, for the purpose of worshipping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing transgressions (sins) or to express one's thoughts and emotions. Thus, people pray for many reasons such as personal benefit, asking for divine grace, spiritual connection, or for the sake of others.

Some anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent modern humans practiced a form of prayer. Today, most major religions involve prayer in one way or another; some ritualize the act of prayer, requiring a strict sequence of actions or placing a restriction on who is permitted to pray, while others teach that prayer may be practiced spontaneously by anyone at any time.

Pray (Take That song)

"Pray" is a song by English boy band Take That. Written by Gary Barlow, it was released on 5 July 1993 as the second single from their second studio album, Everything Changes (1993). It is the first of twelve singles by the band to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart, staying at number one for four weeks, and starting a streak of four consecutive number one singles. The song has received a Gold sales status certification and sold over 410,000 copies in the UK, won Best British Single and Best British Video at the 1994 BRIT Awards, and was the finale of Take That's Beautiful World Tour (2007).

Music video

The video was directed by Gregg Masuak and shot in Acapulco, Mexico. The clip features the band members in the exotic location singing and dancing. The band members are paired with a goddess of the four elements, taking on a different form with each – Air (Mark Owen), Fire (Jason Orange), Earth (Robbie Williams) and Water (Howard Donald) – with the exception of Gary Barlow who is represented in a neutral black and white context. In Barlow's autobiography, he stated that after the disappointment of where "I Found Heaven" was filmed, the band were a lot happier about the location for this video.

Pray (Rebecca St. James album)

Pray is the fifth studio album from Christian pop and rock artist Rebecca St. James. It was released on October 20, 1998 by ForeFront Records and was certified Gold by the RIAA in September 2006. The album won a Grammy Award for Rock Gospel Album of the Year, St. James's only Grammy so far. The album was produced by Tedd T.

Track listing

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Singles - CCM Magazine (North America)

Radio success

In the United States the lead single "Pray" did well on the Christian Charts, while "Omega (Radio Remix)" also got good radio airplay. The song "Peace" did extremely well and is still heard on Christian Radio, ten years later in 2008. In the UK, "Pray", "I'll Carry You" and "Peace" all landed in the Top 100 Songs of 1999, while in Australia "Peace", "Give Myself Away", "Pray" and "OK" all made the Top 100 Songs of 1999. In 2000 "Omega" and "Come Quickly Lord" both landed in the Top 100 Songs of 2000 in Australia. Though never released as a single the song "Mirror" has become a major fan favorite.

Xorcist

Xorcist is the name of an American musical group whose output has ranged from electro-industrial and ambient.

Background

Bat (a.k.a. Peter Stone) formed Xorcist in 1990 as a one-man act. By 1997, Xorcist grew to include Evoltwin.8. In addition to providing some vocals, Evoltwin.8 created the cover art for Soul Reflection and other subsequent releases.

Bat also created into two side projects, Xenon and Diode Fetish.

Bat still DJs and VJs under the name DJ/VJ Bat, and maintains the Xorcist.com website to promote his work.

Bat's music has appeared in MTV's Aeon Flux, and in the video games The Iron Helix, Bad Mojo and Space Bunnies Must Die.

Discography

Xorcist (album)

Xorcist is the second album by rapper X-Raided. It was released on December 12, 1995 for Black Markert Records and featured production from X-Raided,& Willie aka Trump Tight Charles played a key part in producing all the tracks, & help shape what is known today as a ghetto classic called tha Xorcist . The album was recorded over phone by X-Raided while he was at Sacramento County Jail.

From 1993 to 1995 X-Raided recorded a large amount of material entirely over the telephone in jail awaiting trial and prison. These recordings were released on the 1995 album "Xorcist". The exact means used to get the recordings is unknown, but the quality of X-Raided's material on the album is substantially less than studio quality, especially when intermixed with collaborations with other artists where the sound quality is normal.

He says the lyrics mirror his state of mind at the time which was very sneaky and excited. In an interview he stated that he made Xorcist while on trial. A track on the album begins with a recording of a collect call from X-Raided which identifies him as "an inmate in Sacramento County Jail".