prayer for the second Sunday in Lent

Lord on this second Sunday of lent we come lifting our hearts in praise of adoration to you.
And we also come to you as your children seeking a word for our lives.
We come thirsty for your grace.

Lord many of us come with our burdens desiring to have our burdens lifted.
Many of us come with broken hearts looking to have our hearts mended.
Many of us come not just sick in our bodies, but sick in our souls, seeking a healing from you.

But Lord we don’t just come for ourselves, we come with prayers for all people everywhere.
We know that just as you wept over Jerusalem you weep for your world.
And you long to take your people up in your arms of love just as a mother hen would.
And you long for your justice and will to be done.
And Lord we too long for your will and justice to be done
for our hearts beak too for the many injustices in this world.

O Lord, shelter us here and in Haiti, Chile, Pakistan, Jerusalem and in every part of the world.
Amen

cross posted at revgalblogpals

Create Within Me...

God of Love, God of Peace

Create within me
A heart for people
A desire for change
For new beginnings
To start this day
-- contemporary Celtic prayer

Thursday Prayer

Spirit of Love, if I am to express the hospitality of God to all sorts of very different people, to people who seem very alien from me, then I need to learn to listen to each one of them very attentively. But how can I pretend to listen carefully to the different people I encounter if I refuse to listen to the different voices within my own heart? What chance is there of loving and respecting others if I refuse to meet and listen to the many sides of myself? How can I be a reconciler if I shut my ears to the unreconciled conflicts within myself and pretend that I have already arrived at peace?

Now I begin to see that the spiritual life is based on a basic honesty which enables me to recognize that everything I find difficult to accept, bless, forgive, appreciate in others, is actually present within myself. If I paid attention to my own heart I would hear from within many voices, expressing many needs. Perhaps that suspect old saying "charity begins at home" begins to make sense here. Could it be that I have so little charity towards others because I have so little for the many selves of myself?

~~Martin L. Smith

Smith, Martin L. A Season for the Spirit: Readings for the Days of Lent. Boston: Cowley Publications, 1991. 33-34.

Transfiguration

May you be blessed in the holy
names of those who carry your
pain up the mountain of transfiguration.

May you know tender shelter and healing
blessing when you are called to stand in
the place of pain.

May the places of darkness within you be
surprised by light.

May you be granted the wisdom to avoid
false resistance and when suffering
knocks on the door of your life, may
you be able to glimpse its hidden gift.

May you be able to see the fruits of
suffering.

May memory bless and shelter you with the
hard-earned light of past travail, may
this give you confidence and trust.

May a window of light always surprise you.

May the grace of transfiguration heal your
wounds.

May you know that even though the storm
might rage not a hair of your head will
be harmed.

John O'Donohue - "Eternal Echoes - Exploring Our Hunger To Belong"

Prayer for the First Sunday in Lent

Lord on this first Sunday in Lent
we come praying to you from the deserts of our lives.
For some of us it is a painful wilderness.
For some it is a wild and creative place,
For some it is a silent beauty.
Lord we pray for your guidance,
presence and shelter
as we journey this days of Lent.
Help us to deal with temptation,
Keep us from falling into our old traps,
And deliver us from the evil one.

Lord we lift up to you those with illnesses,
those with unmet needs,
those with financial problems,
t hose with brokenness in their lives.
May your tender loving mercy be poured into their lives
into the places it is most needed like warm soothing salve.

Lord we pray our communities where hardship is present,
where there are the homeless,
where there is traumatic violence,
where there are job losses and fear.
Pour your tender mercy into our communities
so that they may have justice that rolls down like water.

Lord we pray for our country with the divisions,
discontentment,
financial problems abound,
pour your tender loving mercy into our nation
healing and redeeming us.

Lord we pray for our world where there is starvation,
poverty, ongoing war,
slavery and abuse of power,
pour your tender loving mercy into our world
so that your Kingdom may come and your will be done.
Amen.


painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Temptation of Christ (1308-10)

cross posted at revgalblogpals

Thursday Prayer

Lord, help me now to unclutter my life,
to organize myself in the direction of simplicity.
Lord, teach me to listen to my heart;
teach me to welcome change, instead of fearing it.
Lord, I give You these stirrings inside me,
I give you my discontent,
I give you my restlessness,
I give you my doubt,
I give you my despair,
I give you all the longings I hold inside.
Help me to listen to these signs of change, of growth;
to listen seriously and follow where they lead
through the breathtaking empty space of an open door.

Source: unknown

From Inward/Outward. Subscribe here.

Ash Wednesday Prayer

VI.

Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn

Wavering between the profit and the loss
In this brief transit where the dreams cross
The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying
(Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things
From the wide window towards the granite shore
The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
Unbroken wings

And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth

This is the time of tension between dying and birth
The place of solitude where three dreams cross
Between blue rocks
But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.

Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.


(from T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday)

Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, Feb. 13

The Negro National anthem, in honor of the first African American Episcopal priest and the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Prayer for Transfiguration Sunday

Oh Lord,
You call us to go to the mountain top with you
And we follow, not quite sure of what is to happen,
but we like mountain tops,
we like the view from up here,
we like mountain top experiences.
Lord some times we need mountain top experiences with you
when our days are dark and dreary,
when our hearts, are heavy,
when the valleys seem more depressing then ever.
Lord, may this mountain top experience
fill our hearts with your light,
may we be filled with your love,
may we be filled with hope.
Lord, we are aware,
that just as Moses and your disciples were changed by their experiences
that we too are changed and transformed into the image of Christ by your mercy.
Lord, may we have unveiled faces that reflect your love, your hope, and your light.

And Lord we add to this prayer;
These prayers for those in our communities affected by the heavy snows, power outages, loss of work, loss of lives, and illnesses.
We continue to pray for the recovery work in Haiti.
Amen.

This Icon is by the hand of Nicholas Papas. It is from St. Philip's Antiochian Orthodox Church in Souderton, PA.

Thursday Prayer

Lightbearer

Jesus, I call upon the power in Your name
to see the way my path must surely lead,
to heal the sick, to tend and feed your flock.
Christ, you are the Lord who calls us to make peace,
to strive for justice daily in your world,
to use your gifts of wisdom, patience, hope,
to be the servant-bearer of the Light.
Spirit, we worship you in truth and holiness.
We seek new ways to make the message clear,
to praise, confess, forgive and show your love
in breaking bread and sharing of our cup.

~~Chuck Shamel

This was written by Chuck Shamel, a member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Corpus Christi, TX.

Tuesday Prayer

After the Transfiguration by Kathy Coffey

Grinding up the steep incline,

our calves throbbing,
we talked of problems
and slapped at flies.
Then you touched my shoulder,
said, "turn around."

Behind us floated
surprise mountains
blue on lavender,
water-colored ranges:
a glimpse from God's eyes.

Descending, how could we chat
mundanely of the weather, like deejays?
We wondered if, returning,
James and John had squabbled:
whose turn to fetch the water,
after the waterfall of grace?

After he imagined the shining tents,
did Peter's walls seem narrow,
smell of rancid fish?
Did feet that poised on Tabor
cross the cluttered porch?
After the bleached light,
could eyes adjust to ebbing
grey and shifting shade?

Cradling the secret in their sleep
did they awaken cautiously,
wondering if the mountaintop
would gild again-bringing
that voice, that face?

Isaiah 49

Prayer for Epiphany 5C

Lord,
We are yours and you have called us in the midst of daily lives to follow you, to serve you,
to spread your good news.
We want to do so, but Lord we often feel unworthy, we feel like we are the chief of sinners, we feel unclean, and not holy at all. Your holiness, your love, your presence scares us.
Calm our fears, dry our tears, that we may know deep within ourselves your love, grace and forgiveness.
Empower us to follow you, to serve you, and to tell others the good news.

O Lord along with this prayer, we also pray for the people of Haiti, the rescue workers, the Doctors and nurses who are providing aid and healing to a devastated people.
O Lord we pray for those around us who may be living their own devastated lives.
Provide the resources, the aid, and the human touch they need for restoration.
In the name of your son, who c,
Amen

cross posted at revgalblogpals

The Alternative to Worry

"Pray, and let God worry." -- Martin Luther

Don't wait!

"We must not wait for common sense, our acquaintances, or our schedules to make room for prayer and to support our efforts. If we do, prayer will never come. If we wait for the time in which to wait for God we will never wait for him. We will never discover in prayer our true self in God."

Finley, James. Merton's Palace of Nowhere. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1978. 118.

Iona Call to Worship

If you come
in certainty or confusion,
in anger or in anguish,
THIS TIME IS FOR US.

If you come
in silent suffering or hidden sorrow,
in pain or promise,
THIS TIME IS FOR US.

If you come
for your own or another's need,
for a private wound or the wound of the world,
THIS TIME IS FOR US.

If you come
and do not know why,
to be here is enough.
THIS TIME IS FOR US ALL.

Come now, Christ of the forgiving warmth,
Come now, Christ of the yearning tears,
Come now, Christ of the transforming touch.
THIS TIME IS FOR YOU.




Kathy Galloway, ed., The Pattern of Our Days: Worship in the Celtic Tradition from the Iona Community.

Imbolc

A Brighid, scar os mo chionn
Do bhrat fionn dom anacal.


O Brigid, spread above my head
Your Mantle bright to guard me.

Ord Brighideach website