Please Pray for Ryan

I don’t know Ryan. He commented on one of my Easter reflections from last year. He sounds dire:

Lord God,

Please let me end my sufferings, and let my loved ones live happily forever.

I emailed Ryan and he hasn’t responded.  I hope that you will pray for him as things sound rough for him right now.

A Dangerous Prayer

Fr. Frank Logue of King of Peace Episcopal Church shares this hard prayer in his post, A Dangerous Prayer:

This ‘blessing’ was prayed over Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) by his spiritual mentor:

May all your expectations be frustrated.
May all your plans be thwarted.
May all your desires be withered into nothingness.

That you may experience
the powerlessness and the poverty of a child
and sing and dance in the love
of God the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

Pastoral Prayer 8/19/07

Gracious father, once we were individuals, scattered and alone trying meagerly to light our own way through this dark world; trying meagerly to cleanse and flavor own lives. But you have lit our way. You have cleansed us and made us the salt of the earth through your Son Jesus. You have made us into a city, a holy nation, your own people and you have made us a light that is brighter than the sun.

You said “let there be light” and you saw that it was good and in this fallen world your light is still so good. In your mercy you came into this dark and bland world as our lord and savior to give us light again. What joy we take in being that light for the world. That when we live in peace with one another and gather together we can light this world and you take delight in if you did say that it was good.

As we gather as the bright and flavorful body of Christ with other Christians around the world, may your glory shine in every dark corner and may your flavor and holiness marinate this world so that everyone may taste and see that you are good.

There are many among us who’s lights have dimmed–who’s passion for you has waned. Our own lights have dimmed. We lift them up today. Forgive us when we pass them by and do not pray with them and love them. Forgive us when we boast about the passion we have–the brightness of our own light. For those who’s light of life is fading through illness or injury or through death, Father we pray that you will heal them and console the body of Christ.

Right now, through the power of the Holy Spirit we ask that you fill us with grace–the fuel for our bright light–so that we may be brighter now than we ever have before. That we are so bright that your glory cannot be denied. That we do not try to leave this city on a hill and travel in the valley alone. We pray for an outpouring of your holy spirt on all people of all nations of all lifestyles of all faiths, and richness, and poorness, and goodness, and evil so that you may be glorified. Father, thy kingdom come. Hear us as we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray….

How My Body Has Fought My Prayers

Though I pray often, I’ve had a difficult time in prayer lately.  I’ve found that the words come so easily.  I pray about many things and for many things.  However, it seems that I’ve been using prayer to avoid the very things I’ve been praying about.  Bringing various things up in my prayers has allowed me to “get the off my chest” without really communing with God on those matters.  It is as if I have been a prayer hypocrite–praying almost to myself.  It is time once again for silence.  You may remember my facination with silence over the Lenten season. 

For the past few days, I have spent time in centering prayer.  Centeringprayer.com has this to say about centering prayer: 

“Centering Prayer facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer — verbal, mental or affective prayer — into a receptive prayer of resting in God. It emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God. At the same time, it is a discipline to foster and serve this relationship by a regular, daily practice of prayer.”

This involves a 20 minute or so period of time in which you recieve God in relative or absolute silence.  A sacred word such as father, love, peace, God, etc, is chosen in a brief period of prayer.  This sacred word is used as a symbol of your invitation to consent to God’s presence and actions within you.  As your mind wanders or you engage in your thoughts, you return to that sacred word.

I think my physiology works against my prayer life.  No sooner did I set my timer for 20 minutes than my heart rate rose, I became tense in various parts of my body, and my mind raced across the myriad of thoughts that have been plaguing me of late.  20 minutes was a battle–not because it was a long time, but because my being seemed to be working against me.  I heard nothing, I felt no presence, I recieved no tangible divine inspiration.  However, I feel that I was in the presence of God.  Throughout the day my spirit has been more intune with the Lord and I have more peace than I have had in my prayer life in many weeks. 

My physical body worked against me.  My spirit worked against me.  This is very interesting.  I think I will spend less time in my selfish spoken prayers and more time in contemplative prayer–listening and receiving.

A Four-Fold Fransiscan Blessing

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator, Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour, and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide, be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore.

AMEN.

 

From All Saints Parish

a prayer

revmommy posts a prayer that is right up my alley…. 

When thou givest to thy servants
to endeavour any great matter
Grant us also to know that it is not the beginning
but the continuing of the same unto the end
until it be thoroughly finished.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.
– Drake’s Prayer

more responses to Virginia Tech

From Alan Bevere… 

A beautiful image and prayer from Locusts and Honey…

A responsive prayer from the Faithful Skeptic 

From Threads from Henry’s Web… 

From emergingumc… 

a response to Virginia Tech

From Father Frank at Irenic Thoughts…

…on Virgina Tech Campus

Gunman Kills 30 on Virginia Tech Campus.

Sadness. I don’t have words.

Rev. Mommy has some good ones, here. 

jim’s maxims and a prayer

I still believe that a majority of the things that we find wrong with other people really stem from things that are unsatisfying about ourselves.That’s a bitter pill to swallow sometimes. Then again, the treatment isn’t always pleasant, but it gets the job done.

When you wear a lot of hats, sometimes you wish you could wear the other one a little more.

Sometimes it’s better not to talk.

Sometimes it’s better to be graceful than to do what feels satisfying.

God is bigger than you.

To our prayers, O Lord, we join our unfeigned thanks for all your mercies; for our being, for our reason, and all other endowments and faculties of soul and body; for our health, friends, food, and raiment, and all the other comforts and conveniences of life. Above all, we adore your mercy in sending your only Son into the world, to redeem us from sin and eternal death, and in giving us the knowledge and sense of our duty towards you. We bless you for your patience with us, nothwithstanding our many and great provocations; for all the directions, assistances, and comforts of your Holy Spirit; for your continual care and watchful providence over us through the whole course of our lives; and particularly for the mercies and benefits of the past day; beseeching you to continue your blessings to us, and to give us grace to show our thankfulness in a sincere obedience to his laws, through whose merits and intercession we received them all, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.