Prayer For Guidance

O Lord my God,
Teach my heart this day where and how to see you,
Where and how to find you.
You have made me and remade me,
And you have bestowed on me
All the good things I possess,
And still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that
For which I was made.
Teach me to seek you,
For I cannot seek you
Unless you teach me,
Or find you
Unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire,
Let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
Let me love you when I find you.

St. Anselm

God, let me know you

Living God,
I've spent years trying to grasp you,
hem you round,
box you into words.
But you are as elusive as love, truth, wisdom.
I will still strive to know about you.
But it's far more important that I know you.
--William J. O'Malley

Frederick Buechner

“When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I'm feeling most ghost-like, it is your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation. When I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.
If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget, part of who I am will be gone. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." the good thief said from his cross (Luke 23:42). There are perhaps no more human words in all of Scripture, no prayer we can pray so well. ”

"I'm Going Up There?"

From Isaiah 11:

⁶The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
⁷The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
⁹They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

Some years ago, I took a hike up Mount Chocorua with the man who would become my husband. When we reached the Jim Liberty Cabin (pictured), I got my first clear view of the summit. I exclaimed, "I'M going up THERE?!?" The unprotected treeless summit frightened me, and I clung to the rocks when we reached the top.

A year later we climbed that mountain again, to be married. It was a slightly overcast day, and the surrounding peaks were wreathed in mist, appearing as islands in the midst of a holy sea.

Truly, we are vulnerable when we stand at the top of a mountain, when we stand in any of God's holy places.

Gracious God,
Grant us courage this day to seek you, to learn of your peace, to make the earth a holy mountain in your name. Amen.

Is "oops" a prayer?

I accidentally posted an entry for my personal blog here, but I've taken it down now. Apologies for any confusion or irritation.

Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is woman.
A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.
Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and her life.

Imagine a woman who has acknowledged the past's influence on the present.
A woman who has walked through her past.
Who has healed into the present....

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.
A woman who trusts her inner sense of what is right for her.
Who refuses to twist her life out of shape to meet the expectations of others....

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.
A woman who sits in circles of women.
Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets....

Imagine a woman who has grown in knowledge and love of herself.
A woman who has vowed faithfulness to her own life and capacities.
Who remains loyal to herself. Regardless.

Imagine yourself as this woman.

Patricia Lynn Reilly

Sunday Prayer

This week I thought we might look at the words of Teilhard de Chardin to help us rest into the prayerfulness of the sabbath.

In this quote from his writing, I hear him inviting us to simply be in this moment as we know it and understand it. I hear an invitation to trust in God's presence, and in the holiness of all creation.

Teilhard de Chardin says, "By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, whereas in fact we live steeped in its burning layers. In eo vivimus. As Jacob said, awakening from his dream, the world, this palpable world, which we were wont to treat with the boredom and disrespect with which we habitually regard places with no sacred association for us, is in truth a holy place, and we did not know it. "

I love the way he balances the ordinary with the extraordinary, placing no barriers in the way of either. For me at least, the days when I can sense the holiness surrounding me is truly a sabbath day, for I can rest into God's presence just as a cat nestles into my lap while the sun shines through my window.

And yet, we all know that trusting in God's mysterious presence can be deeply challenging. We have all experienced the hollow echoing within ourselves when God seems to be missing in action. It is at those times especially that we need to dig deep and find the patient trust that first alighted our souls with the belief that we are not alone. God is with us. Thanks be to God. For all who search for the glowing ember of faith deep within themselves this day, we pray for God's peace.

I like this translation from a letter of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ. It reads as a prayer of patient trust:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We would like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet, it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability -
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually - let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don't try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time,
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

This is from the prayer book titled "Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits."

Amen.

The Way ahead

Jesus,You are the Way



Help us see You, hear You
and step out
with confidence and joy as we obey You today

Amen

We Are the Church...So Let Us Pray

Lord God,
You have placed me in your church. You know how unsuitable I am. Were it not for your guidance I would long since have brought everything to destruction. I wish to give my heart and mouth to your service. I desire to teach your people, and long to be taught your work. Use me as your worker, dear Lord. Do not forsake me; for if I am alone I shall bring it all to naught. Amen.
- Martin Luther

(Hat tip to Sarcastic Lutheran )

Pour into our hearts such love

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire.

Collect for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Book of Common Prayer

Martin Luther's Evening Prayer

My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that You have protected me, by Your grace. Forgive, I pray, all my sins and the evil I have done. Protect me, by Your grace, tonight. I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen

God Says Yes To Me

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

Kaylin Haught The Palm of Your Hand

I will not die an unlived life

I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid, more accessible,

to loosen my heart until it becomes

a wing, a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live so that which came to me

as seed goes to the next as blossom,

and that which came to me as blossom

goes on as fruit.

Dawna Markova, The Open Mind: The 6 Patterns of Natural Intelligence , p. 187 (Conari Press, 1996).

Sunday Prayer

St. Hildegard of Bingen lived during the Middle Ages and is considered by many to be one of the finest visionaries of that period.

I love the imagery in her words:

"Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God."

Interestingly, Hildegard is suspected of having suffered terrible migraines during her life. The famed neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks proposed that at least some of her visions may have been a result of her pain.

Here is a prayer (in contemporary language) to guide our Sunday path...

O God, by whose grace your servant Hildegard, kindled with the Fire of your love, became a burning and shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Morning prayer

Rainy morning at Harpers Ferry, WV



Gracious and loving God, I thank you for this day. Thank you for the gift of seeing you everywhere in the glory of your creation. Help me to be aware of your presence in every moment and to see you in each person I encounter today.

Fill me to overflowing with your love so I might share it in turn with all I meet. Remember my family and friends and all those for whom I have promised to pray. Be there with the sick, the suffering, the needy, and your children who are lost and cannot find the way to you.

Help me also to find my way. Lead me to see what is right and help me to do it, so that my whole life might show my love for you.

Amen.

Morning Prayer -- Kierkegaard

O Lord,
let Yourself be found with a good gift
to everyone who needs it,
that the happy may find courage
to accept Your good gifts,
that the sorrowful may find courage
to accept Your perfect gifts.
For to humans
there is a difference of joy and of sorrow,
but for You,
O Lord,
there is no difference in these things;
everything that comes from You
is a good and perfect
gift.
... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
(adapted from a posting at CQOD)

Tuesday Prayer

Children, everybody, here's what to do during war:

In a time of destruction, create something.
A poem.
A parade.
A community.
A school.
A vow.
A moral principle.
One peaceful moment.

Maxine Hong Kingston. Found at WorldPrayers.org

Serenity Prayer: People Version

God, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change,
The courage to change the one person I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

(I learned this at Family Week while my dad was in an alcoholism treatment program many years ago, and don't know the author. If anyone does, feel free to shout out.)

Sunday Prayer

In my continued efforts to bring more balance and peace into my life, I've been reflecting on The Prayer of St. Francis.

May these words bring you peace today...

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

healing hands

Jesus
We ask for You to come in our midst and heal us

Where there is depression, lift it
Where there is doubt, give us Your mindset
Where there is cancer and arthritis, banish it
Where there is war, bring peace
Where there is fear, give security
Where there is lethargy, give us a spring in our step

Lord, we are thankful that You saw what the Father was doing
and ministered to the poor, the outcast,
to the needy and the broken.

Help us do likewise. Amen

Reality Check

Sign in a pastor's office:

TWO THINGS TO ALWAYS REMEMBER
1. There is a God.
2. It isn't you.

Prayer of Love and Praise

Lord my God,
when Your love spilled over into creation
You thought of me.

I am

from love
of love
for love.

Let my heart, O God, always

recognize,
cherish,
and enjoy your goodness in all of creation.

Direct all that is me toward your praise;
Teach me reverence for every person, all things.
Energize me in your service

Lord God,
May nothing ever distract me from your love ...
Neither health nor sickness

wealth nor poverty
honor nor dishonor
long life nor short life.

May I never seek nor choose to be other

than You intend or wish.

Amen

Morning Prayer

God, we call you the true wellspring of wisdom
and the noble origin of all things.
Be pleased to shed
on the darkness of the mind with which I was born,
The twin beam of your light
and warm me to dispel my ignorance and sin.

You make eloquent the tongues of children.
Then instruct my speech
and touch my lips with graciousness.
Make me keen to understand, quick to learn,
able to remember;
make me delicate to interpret and ready to speak.

Guide my going in and going forward,
lead home my going forth.
You are true God and true human,
and live for ever and ever.

--St Thomas Aquinas, 1225-74

2 Images of Mary Magdalene

Brother Christ,
We come to you with faces and hearts cast down, or lifted up.
Either way, we need you to strengthen, comfort, and transform us.
Move in and through us, as you have moved through our mothers and grandmothers in faith in all times and places.
Amen.




First painting by Caravaggio. Second painting by Louis Glanzman.

Called By Name

A fundamental theme that runs through the Bible is "called by name." This short book is not the place to marshal the many and rich biblical texts that bear abundant witness to this theme. What it amounts to is, I am not one in a crowd for God, I am not a serialized number nor a catalogued card; I am unrepeatably unique, for God "calls me by name." This reality I may certainly characterize as my "personal identity," or my "personal orientation in life," or my most profound and true "self." Biblically, however, I prefer to call it my "personal vocation."....

One's personal vocation is one's unique way of being Christian--namely, as we have shown earlier, one's unique way of giving and surrendering self in any human experience.....the Lord has gifted each one of us with a personal secret of becoming and staying free in the midst of any and every personal experience--each one's personal vocation.

Herbert Alphonso, SJ, Discovering Your Personal Vocation: The Search for Meaning Through the Spiritual Exercises

Sunday Prayer

Yahweh
...hypothetical reconstruction of the tetragrammaton YHWH (see Jehovah), based on the assumption that the tetragrammaton is the imperfective of Heb. verb hawah, earlier form of hayah "was," in the sense of "the one who is, the existing."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper.

Yah·weh
–noun a name of God, transliterated by scholars from the Tetragrammaton and commonly rendered Jehovah.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Friends, let us join our hearts, minds and spirits together in prayer this day as we contemplate the words of U2's "Yahweh"...

Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don't make a fist no
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss

(Refrain)

Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break...

Something new today

Saturday 4th August

Lord,

today I pray for discouraged bloggers out there, especially within the RevGals community. You are the one who has pulled us together, and I pray for a spirit of prayer, of unity, and of encouragement to move through our midst again, so that all we do, say and write will be for Your Glory.

Amen

A roadway in the wilderness He leads me
and Rivers in the desert will I see
Heaven and earth will fade
but His word will remain
He will do something new today



God will make a way
When there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me

He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
with love and strength for each new day
He will make a way
(Don Moen)

please note though that Jesus is portrayed solely as a white middle class young man with the exception of one wonderful picture which really spoke to me. Can you guess which one?

A Morning Blessing

Morning Blessing

The breath of my life
will bless,

the cells of my being
sing

in gratitude,
reawakening.

-- Marcia Falk, The Book of Blessings

What is prayer?

What is prayer?

I make a list:
Praise
Gratitude
Begging/pleading/cutting deals
Fruitless whining and puling
Focus

There the list breaks off; I had found my word. Prayer only looks like an act of language; fundamentally it is a position, a placement of oneself. Focus. Get there, and all that's left to say is the words. They come: from ancient times (here, the round of Psalms, wheeling through the seasons endlessly in the Office), from the surprisingly eloquent heart (taciturn Thomas last night with his intercession, precise as a poet), from the gush and chatter of the day's detail longing to be rendered.

--Patricia Hampl, Virgin Time: In Search of the Contemplative Life