How people pray is both personal and public: Alone in bed before sleep, or crowded in a pew Sunday morning.
But all worship has a common purpose, tied to praise and humility, recognizing a power that's greater than us. As this photo essay by Star Tribune staff beautifully shows, there are many ways we worship in Minnesota.
While the state has a large Christian majority — 74 percent of adults are some stripe of Christian, according to the Pew Research Center — there are also strong Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu communities, among others. Forty-six percent of adults in the state say religion is very important to them, and 34 percent attend religious services weekly.
What's revealed in seeing worshipers across faiths is the beauty of their gestures. They worship according to their customs and teachings. Some bow down, prostrate and humble. Others rise up, making offerings, lifting their eyes, arms, hands, as if reaching to touch the heavens.
![The Neary Sila Thor (Women of Mortality) led a colorful procession during the Kathina Festival at the Watt Munisotaram Cambodian Buddhist temple in Hampton, Minn. The women in the front carried flowers as offerings to the triple gems of Buddhism: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The other community members carried boxes with offerings of robes for the temple's resident monks. Typically, the procession would make its way around the temple three times, but rain kept the procession inside in 2017. ] AAR](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/XHULUHNP2MO2BCWUUXY3MUTNLQ.jpg?&w=1080)
