11.25.09
Advent Prayer
I love the prayers of Advent. Prayers of expectation, longing and crying out to the Lord to break into our lives afresh.
Lord, we prepare the ground of our hearts for this Advent season. Once again, we reclaim Your work within us and in Your world, to make all things new. The story of advent reminds us that when You come there is transformation and healing. You transformed lives then, You transform our lives now, and You will transform all things on the Day of Your return. We look forward to this great Day, when all creation will be made new. We prepare our hearts in this Advent season by praying, listening, singing and responding to Your coming. With the ancients who awaited You, we say “Living Lord, come among us.”
Amen.
(prayer from Dan Wilt’s Advent Readings - DanWilt.com)
11.18.09
A Liturgy: We Gather
I’ve been reflecting on how to continue to equip and remind our body of the importance of the gathering of his people. I wrote a simply liturgy this morning that I would like to include in our corporate expression. I used the language of Our Father as this was one of the primary ways Jesus engaged prayer.
Our Father we gather to worship & celebrate You with song and story
Our Father we gather to host one another with service and ministry
Our Father we gather to be equipped through learning and listening
Our Father we gather to be sent by You to be witnesses and missionaries
Time to Change a Prayer?
When I hear people pray something like “God be with this person” or “We pray you would be with them as they…“ I end up with this niggle in my gut. I wonder if we are actually praying something that cannot be answered because it goes against his very nature. We cannot pray that God would be with us because he is already Emmanuel – God with us. So change that prayer to affirm the nature of God as he is with us and he will be with us and those we pray for especially as we enter the season of Advent.
11.10.09
The Day Before Advent…
November 28 marks the final day of the liturgical or Christian calendar. It provides us an opportunity stop and remember the seasons that we have come through like Lent, Easter and Pentecost. This day also serves as a time to prepare ourselves for Advent and the season of Christmas. We would like to start a new tradition this year in making the day before Advent a day of prayer. Let us pray the Lord will strengthen our practice and experience of prayer through days like these.
Preparation is an important part of a day of prayer. Here are a few ideas to help us prepare for this day:
- Pray daily in the morning and evening asking the Lord to meet us in a significant way on Nov. 28th.
- Choose a couple days to fast putting the Lord in His rightful place and to tune your affections to His.
- Spend time listening to the Lord and notice what scriptures or words come to mind. Write them down and be prepared to share some of them during the time of prayer on the 28th.
Come to a morning or evening time of prayer (or both). There will be morning prayer times at RP at 6am and at ETC at 8:30am. The ETC time of prayer will be more family and child orientated. The evening prayer time will start at 10:00pm at RP.
Join in with the congregational time of celebration and a shared meal. Check with your congregational leader for time and location.
10.28.09
Lectio Divina
Was working through some old Passionate Spirituality notes and came across a spiritual practice that was dear to me a to a community of people I walked with for a couple years with the Center for Spiritual Formation. The practice was Lectio and the experience was rich. We practices this monthly as we met. Here was our outline and how we engaged the communal practice of Lectio.
Prepare: Someone has chosen a scripture. Take a moment to come fully into the present. Sit comfortably alert, eyes closed, and breathe. (Each reading is done by a different person).
1. Hear the word that is addressed to you. First reading (twice). Listen for a word or phrase that attracts from the passage. Repeat it over to yourself softly during a one minute silence. When the leader gives the signal say aloud only that word (or phrase) with no elaboration.
2. Prepare to reflect on “how is my life touched?’ (by this word). Second reading is done. Listen to how Your life is touched today by this passage. Consider possibilities or receive a sensory impression during the two minutes of silence. When the leader gives the signal speak a sentence or two beginning with “I hear,” “I see,” “ I sense,” or you may pass).
3. Ask “Is there an invitation here?” Third reading. Listen to discover a possible invitation. Ponder it during several minutes of silence. When the leader gives the signal, speak out your sense of invitation.
10.16.09
Lord Make Us Instruments of Your Peace
This is worth posting every so often. One of my favourite prayers to pray. I especially like the prayer in language that helps us pray with the rest of the church.
The Peace Prayer of St Francis
Lord make us an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, Let us sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is error, truth
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, Joy
Master grant that we 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.
10.09.09
Spiritual Practices as a Seat at the Table.
I went to a conference recently and heard Mindy Caliguire teach on Soul Care. She suggested a helpful image in terms of spiritual practices that help us to place the role of these practices in our life. I think you’ll be blessed by it. Take a look.
09.30.09
Singing Evening Prayers.
Song is a powerful expression of prayer. There are a couple prayers that are great to sing with kids as they close out the day and move to sleep.
1. We Fall Down. Simple, easy to learn and sing acapella and puts God in his rightful place regardless of how we’ve treated him throughout our day.
2. Praise God From Whom all Blessings Flow. A song of gratefulness acknowledging that all things in our day came from the triune God.
Our hearts will share the affections of God’s heart the more we turn to him in prayer.
