Archive for prayer

Sleeping Prayer

August 17, 2013 / / One comment

I am placing my soul and my body
On Thy sanctuary this night, O God,
On Thy sanctuary, O Jesus Christ,
On Thy sanctuary, O Spirit of perfect truth,
The Three who would defend my cause,
Nor turn their backs upon me.

Thou, Father, who art kind and just,
Thou, Son, who didst overcome death,
Thou, Holy Spirit of power,
Be keeping me this night from harm;
The Three who would justify me
Keeping me this night and always.

 

Thanks to Journey with Jesus

Originally from the Carmina Gadelica I, 73

Taken from Esther de Waal, editor, The Celtic Vision (Liguori, MO: Liguori/Triumph, 1988, 2001), p. 52

Category: Celtic, prayer /

Travel Mercies

May 29, 2013 / / Comments Off on Travel Mercies

Lots of folks are traveling this time of year, myself included, and so we are mindful of our need for travel mercies: protecting grace, sustaining grace, guiding grace, in the in-between places.

I do not know what you need. I doubt I know what I need myself.  Whatever your journey, literal or metaphorical, God bless you on your way.

 

“It’s funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools – friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty – and said ‘do the best you can with these, they will have to do’. And mostly, against all odds, they do.”

–Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.

 

God be with thee in every pass,
Jesus be with thee on every hill,
Spirit be with thee on every stream,
Headland and ridge and lawn;

Each sea and land, each moor and meadow,
Each lying down, each rising up,
In the trough of the waves, on the crest of the billows,
Each step of the journey thou goest.

 

Carmina Gadelica III, 195
From Esther de Waal, editor, The Celtic Vision (Liguori, MO: Liguori/Triumph, 1988, 2001).

Thanks to Dan Clandenin at Journey with Jesus.

 

Category: faith, mercy, prayer, travel /

Listening for the call of God

March 12, 2013 / / One comment

Many of us experience prayer as a dialogue which we initiate.  We set aside time and go to a specific place and begin the dialogue.  We wait to see if God will respond, if God will answer our prayers.  But in fact it is always God who initiates the dialogue.  It is God who prompts us to seek him; it is God who awakens our hearts to desire to know and do God’s will.  So prayer is actually a conversation that God initiates, and therefore our primary posture in prayer is to be one of attentive listening. Rather than asking ourselves how and when we’re going to find the time to pray today, we might better ask ourselves how and when God is going to speak to us today – will it be in a quiet moment, through a conversation with a friend, in the words of Scripture or the liturgy, through the wonders of the natural world?  Our role is to be attentive, to be watching and listening throughout the day for God’s presence and activity.  Without this kind of attentiveness, we might miss the burning bush altogether.

 

Br. David Vryhof, SSJE
Listening for the Call of God

 

Category: Lent, listening, prayer / Tags: ,

A dart of longing love

March 11, 2013 / / Comments Off on A dart of longing love

 

A brief meditation in a series of daily Lenten videos from the Society of St. John the Evangelist.

 

 

 

A small aside: I love seeing the passion, the smiles, and especially the hands on this page.

Category: Lent, love, Mystery, prayer, Presence / Tags: , ,

The road ahead

March 8, 2013 / / One comment

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

– Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude”
© Abbey of Gethsemani

The Merton Institute for Contemplative Living

 

 

Category: prayer / Tags:

Free from every bond

January 29, 2013 / / Comments Off on Free from every bond

 

On Sunday morning a young member of our congregation ended his struggle with illness. On Sunday evening we gathered at the church to say The Litany at the Time of Death (Book of Common Prayer, p.462).

It is an extraordinary thing to speak these words on the day of someone’s passing–when shock and grief are all you know, and daily life has not yet massaged the pain into something manageable.  For me, it was the ritual that allowed me to do the thing that I could not do of my own volition, but needed most to do.  As a congregation, it was a first painful step forward, hand in hand.

 

Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world;
In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you;
In the Name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you;
In the Name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you.
May your rest be this day in peace,
and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.

Category: death, peace, prayer /

Take Me to the Water

January 13, 2013 / / Comments Off on Take Me to the Water

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”   Luke 3:21-22

 

Today, on the day we remember Jesus’ baptism, the household of God welcomed many new family members through the sacrament of baptism. It is a day of solemn joy as we remember our own vows, and promise to do everything in our power to support the newly baptized in their life in Christ.  Afterwards we give thanks to God for forgiveness of sins and the new life of grace.  Finally, we ask God to bestow a most precious gift:

Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.

Amen.  And may it be so for all of us.


 

 

To see and hear historic American music and photographs of baptisms, explore Dust to Digital’s Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photographs.

 

Category: baptism, music, prayer /

Covenant Prayer

November 30, 2012 / / One comment

The Covenant Prayer of John Wesley

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

 

The Covenant Prayer was adapted by John Wesley for use in services for the Renewal of the Believer’s Covenant with God.  While early Covenant Renewal services could be held in any season, now they are often celebrated at the beginning of the new year.

I find these words both beautiful and terrifying.  If you take them seriously, they represent an amazing surrender of will which most of us find difficult to imagine, let alone desire.  If God takes them seriously, then by speaking them we do something huge and irrevocable, and we must do it “freely and heartily.”

Yet the words of the Covenant Prayer are not words of defeat or despair; they are not words of subjugation. They are words of Love. The prayer that begins, “I am no longer my own, but thine” moves from the offering of self, whatever the requirements, to include this startling claim on God, “Thou art mine and I am thine.”  The prayer articulates a covenant–a binding of ourselves to God and God to us.  How dare we give ourselves away?  How dare we make such a claim?

Cross and Flame

 

Category: covenant, hymns, Methodists, prayer / Tags: ,

Guidance, gratitude, and wonder

November 19, 2012 / / Comments Off on Guidance, gratitude, and wonder

 

A lot of thought, and whole lot of ink have been shared on the subject of talking to God. Moses, Jesus and Paul can keep us going for hours. Today Anne Lamott talks about her new book on NPR, Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. Food for thought as we draw near to Thanksgiving.

Category: Books, prayer / Tags:

Singing and praying

October 29, 2012 / / One comment

This quote from singer Iris DeMent who grew up in a Pentecostal family:

“My mom, who sang straight up until the day she died, told me one day: ‘You know, Iris, singing is praying and praying is singing. There ain’t no difference.’ So I think, even though I’ve left the church and moved away from a lot of the things that didn’t do me any good, I continued to pray — and that is singing for me. That’s as close as I get to praying.”

Category: music, Pentecostal, prayer, quotations / Tags: ,
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