Tuesday Prayer Blogging

Now Is the Time

Now is the time to take off the mask and open your eyes,
to look into the face of darkness,
to step out of the muddy ruts and forge ahead.
Now is the time to shake the dust from your heart,
to open the back door and let the gypsies in,
to welcome home the cast of characters you left behind long ago.
Now is the time to hear the sweet sound of solitude,
to put on the coat you know you’ll never outgrow,
to move on firm ground and arrive at the place that is yours.

—Ms. Diane Janes-Tucker

--the BB

Tuesday Prayer Blogging

Grant us, O Lord, the blessing of those whose minds are stayed on you, so that we may be kept in perfect peace: a peace which cannot be broken. Let not our minds rest upon any creature, but only in the Creator; not upon goods, things, houses, lands, inventions of vanities or foolish fashions, lest, our peace being broken, we become cross and brittle and given over to envy. From all such deliver us, O God, and grant us your peace.
--George Fox (1624-1691) Founder of the Society of Friends

Via The Communion of Saints, edited by Horton Davies

--the BB

Tuesday Prayer Blogging

Dawn Walk, December 23, 2006

Jesus Christ, our Starting Point, our Way, our Goal, look upon us with Thy most gracious eyes, with the eyes of Thy most overcoming pity, with the eyes that recalled St. Peter to himself, to the Communion of Saints, to Thee. Amen.
--Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

From Give us Grace
--the BB

Tuesday Prayer Blogging

I find the following prayer charming, perhaps because I know how far I fall from goodness. And yet I have desired it.

Lord, I am no hero, I have been careless, cowardly, sometimes all but mutinous. Punishment I have deserved, I deny it not. But a traitor I have never been; a deserter I have never been. I have tried to fight on Thy side in Thy battle against evil.

I have tried to do the duty which lay nearest me; and to leave whatever Thou didst commit to my charge a little better than I found it.

I have not been good, but at least I have tried to be good. Take the will for the deed, good Lord. Strike not my unworthy name off the roll call… which is the blessed company of all faithful people… even though I stand lowest and last upon the list. Amen.
—Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

From Give Us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayers, edited by Christopher L. Webber (Morehouse Publishing, 2004)
--the BB

Tuesday Prayer Blogging

A westward looking panorama of Albuquerque
December 29 2005

Almighty God, the giver of wisdom, without whose help resolutions are vain, without whose blessing study is ineffectual; enable me, if it be your will, to attain such knowledge as may qualify me to direct the doubtful, and instruct the ignorant; to prevent wrongs and terminate contentions; and grant that I may use that knowledge which I shall attain to your glory and my own salvation, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

-Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer


[From The Communion of the Saints: Prayers of the Famous, ed. Horton Davies]
--the BB

Belated prayer blogging

With the holiday whirl I have been losing track of the days (and what's my excuse the rest of the time?), so I failed to do Tuesday prayer blogging yesterday. Mes apologies!

As my act of reparation I took a little tour in Massey Shepherd's A Companion of Prayer for Daily Living. I came across a prayer by Abp. William Laud. It seems well suited for the present day. The language is mostly familiar, though the version in the BCP is slightly altered.

William Laud (feast day January 10) [from Wikipedia]

Gracious Father, I humbly beseech thee for thy holy Catholic Church: Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where it is superstitious, rectify it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in want, furnish it; where it is divided and rent asunder, make up the breaches of it, O thou Holy One of Israel. Amen.

--the BB

Tuesday Prayer Blogging

I would not have chosen this graphic for a prayer post but it seems well-suited to Advent with the great battle between light and darkness portrayed as Michael and the legions of heaven cast the devil and his angels out of heaven. It is by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), of course.

ArtCyclopedia says this about him:

Albrecht Dürer is the greatest exponent of Northern European Renaissance art. While an important painter, in his own day Dürer was renowned foremost for his graphic works. Artists across Europe admired and copied Dürer's innovative and powerful prints, ranging from religious and mythological scenes, to maps and exotic animals.

Technically, Dürer's prints are exemplary for their detail and precision

You can see many of Dürer's works online at Wikipedia Commons.

Today, however, we turn to this artist for a prayer of his that seems rather timely now:

O God in heaven, have mercy on us! Lord Jesus Christ, intercede for your people, deliver us at the opportune time, preserve in us the true genuine Christian faith, collect your scattered sheep with your voice, your divine Word as Holy Writ calls it. Help us to recognize your voice, help us not to be allured by the madness of the world, so that we may never fall away from you, O Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer found on page 55 of The Communion of Saints: Prayers of the Famous, edited by Horton Davies (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990)

--the BB

Tuesday Prayer Blogging

Christ mandala
Nalini Jayasuriya
Sri Lanka

A Prayer for Deliverance

O God, your glory blazes with the light of love and justice, your righteousness and your mercy flow together as one mighty stream: May we who beseech deliverance from violence, oppression, and degradation be purged within of their roots—of fear, envy, powerlessness, anger, resentment, the lust for revenge and the desire to hurt—and of the blindness and willfulness which beset our best intentions; that we may not act with violence, neither oppress nor degrade any of your creatures, but may strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being; for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

This prayer expands a petition from Form I of the Prayers of the People and concludes with the final vow of our Baptismal Covenant. Imagery is drawn either explicitly or allusively from Hebrews 12:29 (and Eliot’s complex vision of fire in “Little Gidding”), Amos 5:24, Ezekiel 34:26, Psalm 2:6-7, Ezekiel 47, Revelation 22. The themes of fire and water mingle in the Orthodox liturgies of the Feast of the Theophany.
--the BB

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Gracious God, for three things today
I thank you,
for four I praise your Name:
for the wonder of existence
and for the blazing passion
of your steadfast mercies,
for uplifting deeds
of human kindness,
and for the capacity to love;
Quicken my abilities to feel
awe and gratitude, to open
my heart to each
of your children
and to you.
Amen.

--written on the Feast of St Bartholomew 1986

This prayer, based on the Hebrew wisdom pattern of “three things and four,” touches on the miracle of creation (its “thatness”), God’s covenant love (the whole issue of relationship), the outworking of God’s love and grace through human beings (participation and cooperation), and that within us which can love (the image of God). [Distilled from the notes in my paper of prayers]
--the BB

Tuesday Prayer Blogging

We used to wonder where war lived,
what it was that made it so vile.
And now we realize that we know where it lives,
that it is inside ourselves.

—Albert Camus

So instead of loving what you think is peace,
love other [people] and love God above all.
And instead of hating the people you think are warmakers,
hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul,
which are the causes of war.
If you love peace,
then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed –
but hate these things in yourself, not in another."

—Thomas Merton, from "New Seeds of Contemplation"

A Prayer for Deliverance

O God, your glory blazes with the light of love and justice, your righteousness and your mercy flow together as one mighty stream: May we who beseech deliverance from violence, oppression, and degradation be purged within of their roots—of fear, envy, powerlessness, anger, resentment, the lust for revenge and the desire to hurt—and of the blindness and willfulness which beset our best intentions; that we may not act with violence, neither oppress nor degrade any of your creatures, but may strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being; for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

This prayer expands a petition from Form I of the Prayers of the People and concludes with the final vow of our Baptismal Covenant. Imagery is drawn either explicitly or allusively from Hebrews 12:29 (and Eliot’s complex vision of fire in “Little Gidding”), Amos 5:24, Ezekiel 34:26, Psalm 72:6-7, Ezekiel 47, Revelation 22. The themes of fire and water mingle in the Orthodox liturgies of the Feast of the Theophany.

--the BB

Tuesday Prayer Blogging

A Prayer for Those Who Have None to Pray for Them
ALL-SEEING GOD, whose loving care extends to every creature: Hear our prayer for those whose cries are unheard, whose joys are unshared, and whose very being goes unnoticed; mercifully open our eyes to these your children, unstop our ears and unbind our hearts and hands that your image may shine in our shared humanity; and may your holy angels minister to those whose cry we, in our sin and frailty, have not heard; through your Son whose last cries echoed in the silence of your hidden mercy, even Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This prayer was composed in 1981 and was included, with comments in a footnote, in a paper I wrote in December 1987 titled "Patterns of Grace: A Personal Anglican Theology Expressed in a Collection of Prayers." I plan to share more on a weekly basis.

The prayer is copyright 1981 by P. E. Strid. This prayer may be used liturgically, devotionally, or informationally provided attribution is unfailingly given and no commercial use is made or publishing outside a congregation or faith community is done. Thanks.