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Holy God – in this precious hour, we pause and gather to hear your word– to do so, we break from our work responsibilities and from our play fantasies; we move from our fears that overwhelm and from our ambitions that are too strong,
Free us in these moments from every distraction, that we may focus to listen, that we may hear, that we may change. Amen
--Walter Brueggemann
From Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003 p. 61)
Showing posts with label Supplication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supplication. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Prayer for our own Freedom
Monday, June 04, 2007
Prayer to Teach Us by Rudyard Kipling
Father in Heaven who lovest all,
O help Thy children when they call;
That they may build from age to age
An undefiled heritage.
Teach us to rule ourselves alway;
Controlled and cleanly night and day;
That we may bring, if need arise,
No maimed or worthless sacrifice.
Teach us the strength that cannot seek,
By deed or thought, to hurt the weak:
That, under Thee, we may possess
Man's strength to comfort man's distress.
Teach us delight in simple things,
And mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And Love to all men 'neath the sun!
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
You Who Are
You who are over us, You who are one of us, You who are also within us, May all see you in me also, May I prepare the way for you, May I thank you for all that shall fall to my lot, May I also not forget the needs of others... Give me a pure heart - that I may see you, A humble heart - that I may hear you, A heart of love - that I may serve you, A heart of faith - that I may abide in you.
--Dag Hammarskjold, 1905-1961
From The Doubleday Prayer Collection, compiled by Mary Batchelor ( New York: Doubleday, 1996, p. 13)
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Prayer for Invitation
Lord by thy grace, let the poor see me be drawn to Christ and invite him to enter their homes and their lives. Let the sick and the suffering find in me a real angel of comfort and consolation. Let the little ones of the streets cling to me because I remind them of him, the friend of all little ones.
--Mother Teresa, 1910-1996
From The Harper Collins Book of Prayers, compiled by Robert Van de Weyer (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993, p. 352)
Monday, January 29, 2007
Prayer for Disturbance
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have 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 wider 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 into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love."
—Sir Francis Drake, explorer and naval pioneer during the Elizabethan era
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Prayer for Love
Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.
Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.
Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.
Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.
-- Anonymous source
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Thank you, Lord, for always answering prayer...
Thank you, Lord, for always answering prayer, but not indulging my every petty, private give me. Thank you for winnowing and refining, vetoing and delaying, refusing and revising. Thank you for being God and never less, for freeing me for wide horizons, for protecting me from my limited vision and wayward will. Thank you for foiling my every effort to unseat you and make myself king. Thank you for keeping it safe for me to pray.
--Gerhard E. Frost
From Seasons of a Lifetime: A Treasury of Meditations (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1989, p. 118)
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Walter Brueggemann prayer
We would as soon you were stable and reliable.
We would as soon you were predictable
and always the same toward us.
We would like to take the hammer of doctrine
and take the nails of piety
and nail your feet to the floor
and have you stay in one place.
And then we find you moving,
always surprising us,
always coming at us from new directions.
Always planting us
and uprooting us
and tearing all things down
and making all things new.
You are not the God we would have chosen
had we done the choosing,
but we are your people
and you have chosen us in freedom.
We pray for the great gift of freedom
that we may be free toward you
as you are in your world.
Amen.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Prayer
Musings from John:
Do you pray?
Chances are you do, since most people in the US pray, even if they are not sure if they believe in God. Yet, I'm not sure that people expect that something will happen. Maybe they just do it as therapy; maybe it is an existintial cry of pain; quite often it may be something done because it is expected. When this conversation came up recently, one person in the group said that the only way that God speaks to us is through the Bible. If that is the case, is the conversation one-sided? The Wikipedia article on prayer asks, Why pray? Interestingly, it is generally assumed that it is for a personal reason and it doesn't go beyond that. Or if there is a God and He is listening, is it really necessary? Erwin McManus, in a great talk to a Christian crowd (see Mosaic podcast), points out that people from all religions pray - what should separate us is what we should expect in return.
So chime in: What do you expect to happen when you pray?
Let me personalize this: my family wants to be missionaries, even feel called, but in order for that to happen, some things need to be in place within a pretty short amount of time. Honestly, I am not exactly sure what to pray for, and have prayed for different things to happen; but most of the time, the prayer is a silent anxiousness, a tacit longing.
Oh, I know that we'll be fine, no matter what happens. I am struggling to move my thoughts more often to people around me that need far more help than my family. But if you have a moment to spare, I would certainly appreciate it...
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