The Interior Castle

Go within every day and find the inner strength...so that the world will not blow your candle out.

--Katherine Dunham

And always remember...I will be there for you every step of the way.

--Mother God

I Will, With God's Help

Holy and Gracious God, you call to me and I answer, "Here I am!" Help me to listen with ears sensitive to the softest word and the angriest. Help me to follow when the path seems easy and when the path seems impossible. Help me to see the hungry and give them food, the thirsy and give them a cold cup of water. Help me to give thanks to you for the gift of life, my life, the life of others, and especially the gift of life given to us through your Son. Help me to be still when I need to be still and to move when action is called. In all things and in all ways help me as I seek to be your hands and heart in this world. Amen.

Saturday frenzy

Dear Lord,
the noise and the hurry
of the day
have broken their hold,
and I have slipped away

... to be with you.

A Prayer For Peace

Lord, I am part of the tension
and injustice of the world.

Forgive our human selfishness,
to which I contribute;

heal the resentment between people,
of which I am a part;

and come into the world's conflicts,
in which I share by being human.

Take my unworthiness and sorrow,
and use them in your great work
of healing and redeeming humanity.

— Angela Ashwin
in The Book of A Thousand Prayers
compiled by Angela Ashwin

Thursday Prayer

Loving Spirit of God, have mercy on the dying

• Those dying in pain and suffering
• Those dying in fear and loneliness
• Those dying from hunger and a lack of physical resources
• Those dying violent deaths
• Those dying without any knowledge of your infinite tenderness and compassion.

Bring to all a sense of your presence.Guard them as the apple of your eye. Shelter them in the shadow of your wings and enfold them in your presence. This we ask through Christ our Lord, Amen.

(Prayers for the dying)

Tuesday Prayer

Jesus
is
here
right
now.

With Thoughts of Hagar

God of the Desert Times,
We turn to you this day trusting that no matter the concerns we carry, you care and are present for us.
If we are thirsty, you are the source of water.
If we are ill, you are the source of healing.
If we are discouraged, you are the source of hope.
Open our eyes, O God, as you opened Hagar's in the desert so long ago. Open our hearts to your refreshing grace, to the water that will quench us always, to the water that is more than H2O, to the water that is your constant presence in our lives.
With that water in our spiritual canteens, we can go forward, no matter what we may face. Amen.

(This is an adaptation of my pastoral prayer yesterday. The image is Marc Chagall's painting of Hagar in the Desert.)

Sunday Prayer

O God of love and mercy: by whom we are guided through the distractions of this life; toward whom our lives are ultimately directed; through whom we come to know the fullness of life and love; fill us with your grace, sustain us with your presence, further us with your continual help. In all that we do and all that we are, may we come to know oursleves as beginning, continuinig, and ending in you. Grant us in all our doubts and uncertainties the abiity to know your love. Fill us with your Spirit that she may sustain in times of trial and with her wisdom save us from all false choices. In your light, holy and gracious God, may we see light and follow the way to you. May our lives be the hands and heart of Christ and may we glorify your holy Name. Amen.

Luther's Sacristy Prayer

Luther’s Sacristy Prayer

Lord God, You have appointed me as a pastor in Your Church, but you see how unsuited I am to
meet so great and difficult a task. If I had lacked Your help, I would have ruined everything long
ago. Therefore, I call upon You: I wish to devote my mouth and my heart to you; I shall teach the
people. I myself will learn and ponder diligently upon You Word. Use me as Your instrument -- but
do not forsake me, for if ever I should be on my own, I would easily wreck it all.

Sacristy picture

Friday Prayer: "Dear God, Please Let Me Be Your Friend"

"Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.” -- Teresa of Avila

Rejoice!

. . . . may the dimension of God's time

allow for the maturation

of your Faith blossoms -

developing into fresh new seed pods

of Faith and Trust -

nurtured in your inner dwelling

and ready to burst forth,

scattering to others on the winds

of change,

drenched by the human tears

of joy

and

warmed by your inner radiant sun.

Rejoice! . . .

(by Sue Cook)

Tuesday Prayer

God, give us grace
to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things that should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.


Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Neibuhr

The Shortest Prayer

My Godde, how I love you.

Amen.

Sunday Prayer

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life....

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know her and make her known; and through her, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you for your grace, hospitality, and generosity. Amen. (Adapted from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, page 836)

Saturday's Prayer of thanks

Thank you God for creating ME!

Thank you God for creating ME!
In your womb I have been fashioned;
Your spirit dwells within me;
Truly I am wonderfully marvelously made!

From your love and wisdom have I come
To this place and time.
To me you have given talent and life and blessings.
To me you have given tasks given to no others.

With joy and gratitude
I celebrate my much-honored existence.
From ages past to eternity,
I have been included in your divine plan.


Thank you God for creating ME!

A Prayer For Discernment

God, I know you love me and have great plans for me. But sometimes I am overwhelmed by the thought of my future. Show me how to walk forward one day at a time.

May I take heart while I search openly, learn about all the choices, listen to others for advice, and pay attention to my own feelings. By doing these things, may I hear your call to a lifestyle and a calling that will let me love as only I can, and let me serve others with the special gifts that you have given me.

Amen.

-- Author Unknown

Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.

Augustine, Confessions

Psalm 130

Psalm 130
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to [b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Healing River of the Spirit

Healing river of the Spirit, bathe the wounds that living brings.
Plunge our pain, our sin, our sadness deep within your sacred springs.
Weary from the restless searching that has lured us from your side,
We discover in your presence peace that world cannot provide.

Wellspring of the healing Spirit, stream that flows to bring release,
As we gain our selves, our senses, may our lives reflect your peace.
Grateful for the flood that heals us, may your church enact your grace.
As we meet both friend and stranger, may we see our Savior's face.

Living stream that heals the nations, make us channels of your pow'r.
All the world is torn by conflict; wars are raging at this hour.
Saving Spirit, move among us; guide our winding human course,
Till we find our way together, flowing homeward to our source.

Text: Ruth Duck
Tune: Beach Spring

Oh God, You Call Us....

Holy and Gracious God, we thank you for the gift of life and all the blessings of this life. Help us remember that as you called Abraham and Sarah, as Jesus called Matthew, so you call us to be your hands and heart in the world. Help us to work toward reconciliation: where this corruption help us bring forth purity; where there is error to redirect it; where we veer from your desires, help us to restore us and the world to you. Help us to be the face of Christ in the broken places of this world. Help us to reach out to those who are far off and those who are near. Bring us into your embrace that all may know your peace. Guide us with your wisdom. Strengthen us with your grace. Sustain us with your love. All this we ask through your Son who, along with the Holy Spirit, leads us in this life. Amen.

Saturday Prayer

I arise today

Through a mighty strength:
God's power to guide me,

God's might to uphold me,

God's eyes to watch over me;

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to give me speech,

God's hand to guard me,

God's way to lie before me,

God's shield to shelter me,

God's host to secure me.

irish - first millenium - bridgid of gael

Huntsville's Picture of the Week--Sunrise on Monte Sano Mountain

A Prayer As We Interact With Others

O God, we thank thee that so often we have been happily mistaken in our estimate of other people; that so many times we have been startled by a flash of beauty where we looked only for dullness, and a glow of fire where we expected to find nothing but ashes. May we be delivered from the folly of demanding that others shall always be at their best, while we forget that we ourselves are not always at our best. Save us from the false judgment of feeling that others are always as mean as they appeared to be in some perverse moment. May we be ready to forgive people for what they are, as well as for what they do, since in thy great Being they have as much right to be as we have. May we not feel too bad about the ways in which others have their good times. If we put ourselves in the seat of the scornful, may we find it very uncomfortable. May we never forget that everyone is fighting a secret battle. As for our own lives, may we grow more like what we seem to our best friends and less like what we seem to our worst enemies. And may we not defraud ourselves by too little giving and forgiving. Amen.

--The Rev. Vivian T. Pomeroy

A prayer of discipleship

"Send me."

But where? To do what?

To bring pardon where there had been injury in a life I casually brushed against at my daily work? (But I had thought of mediating a teenage gang war in Chicago!)

To help turn doubt into faith in a person with whom I live intimately in my circle of family or friends? (But I had thought of helping a tired drunk from skid row!)

"Send me." Send me next door, into the next room, to speak somehow to a human heart beating alongside mine. Send me to bear a note of dignity into a subhuman, hopeless situation. Send me to show forth joy in a moment and a place where there is otherwise no joy but only the will to die.

Send me to reflect your light in the darkness of futility, mere existence, and the horror of casual human cruelty. But give me your light, too, Jesus, in my own darkness and need.

--Malcolm Boyd

A Healing Prayer

God is my help in every need;
God does my every hunger feed;
God walks beside me, guides my way
Through every moment of the day.

I now am wise, I now am true,
Patient, kind, and loving, too.
All things I am, can do, and be,
Through God, the Truth that is in me.

God is my health, I can not be sick;
God is my strength, unfailing and quick;
God is my all, I know no fear,
Since God and love and Truth are here.

by Hannah More Kohaus

Sunday Prayer: We Will With God's Help

Holy and gracious God, we thank you for the gift of life, especially for the gift of your Son who leads us in this life. Help us to always remember that it is not enough just hear the Word, but we need also to act on it. In the words of our baptismal covenant (Book of Common Prayer page 304-305) let us remember how we have promised to do what we hear: Let us continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers. Let us persevere in resisting evil and whenever we fall into sin to repent and return to the Lord. Let us proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. May we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves. May we strive for justic and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. May we do all this with God's help. Amen.