For a moment Thursday, everyone stopped what they were doing to pray — each in their own way — and observe the National Day of Prayer.

We are fortunate to live in a land where we may pray — or not — depending on our belief systems. Here, in Selma, more of us believe than do not.

Elsewhere, people are not as fortunate. For example in Madison, Wis., a group of about 50 joined together to protest the day of prayer after a U.S. District judge ruled the law that created the pray day was an unconstitutional call to religious action.

We disagree with the judge, although respectfully so.

Prayer, contemplative meditation, develops a person’s spiritual depth and, in turn, that depth generates the entire person. Although he was often criticized by other psychologists, M. Scott Peck, the author of “The Road Less Travelled,” said it best, “The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning. The experience of spiritual power is basically a joyful one.”

So, as a community as we engage in our practice, we not only move along the path of spiritual growth individually, but also corporately — in community.

This growth, then, is the value of observations such as the National Day of Prayer