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Wednesday Prayer: Let us leave a little room

Augustine of Hippo said:

Let us leave a little room for reflection in our lives, room too for silence. 
Let us look within ourselves and see whether there is some delightful hidden place inside where we can be free of noise and argument. 
Let us hear the Word of God in stillness and perhaps we will then come to understand it.

Wednesday: Prayer of St. Anselm

O Lord my God,
Teach my heart this day where and how to see you,
Where and how to find you.
You have made me and remade me,
And you have bestowed on me
All the good things I possess,
And still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that
For which I was made.
Teach me to seek you,
For I cannot seek you
Unless you teach me,
Or find you
Unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire,
Let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
Let me love you when I find you.

Wednesday Prayer: Feast of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, August 14

Jonathan Daniels was a seminarian at Episcopal Divinity School in New York City when he learned of Dr. Martin Luther King's call for for northern volunteers to march to Selma, Alabama in 1965. Then, he asked himself, “Can I spare the time: Do I want to spare the time? Do I want to go?” Reluctantly he concluded that the idea was impractical.But that evening, Jon changed his mind —  and he went to Alabama. His last act was to shove a black teenager out of the path of the bullet intended for her. As a civil rights worker he was shot and killed in August 1965.

Before he was killed, Jon explained his calling to go to Alabama: “I had come to Evening Prayer as usual that evening, and as usual I was singing the Magnificat with the special love and reverence I have always felt for Mary’s glad song. ‘He hath showed strength with his arm….’ As the lovely hymn of the God-bearer continued, I found myself peculiarly alert, suddenly straining toward the decisive, luminous, Spirit-filled ‘moment’ that would, in retrospect, remind me of others – particularly one at Easter three years ago. Then it came. ‘He….hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things…’
I knew then that I must go to Selma.”

 Source for text above & icon: jeanhite.wordpress.com

O God of justice and compassion, you put down the proud and mighty from their place, and lift up the poor and the afflicted: we give you thanks for your faithful witness Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who, in the midst of injustice and violence, risked and gave his life for another; and we pray that we, following his example, may make no peace with oppression; through Jesus Christ the just one, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Read more about Jonathan Myrick Daniels here and here. 

Lectionary for the Feast of Jonathan Myrick Daniels

Source: Santospopsicles.blogspot.com

God in Every Atom

God in every atom, God in all the stars. God in grains of sand, God in lofty mountains. God in evening breezes, God in mighty storms. God in silent rooms, God in crowded cities. God in the heart of doubt, God in the soul of faith. God in the rational scientist, God in the dedicated nun. God in the alley, God in the cathedral. God in the Buddhist monk, God in the Muslim child. God everywhere, God right here. God then, God now. God in my heart, God beyond my mind. God only, God all. God, God. God.

- The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, Choctaw

Let Our Hearts Adore You

Let our hearts adore you for ever, O Lord, that, waking or sleeping, we may never cease to worship you. May your angels keep watch over us day and night, and may the praise from our lips mingle with the songs of heaven. Amen.

Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389)
(hat tip to RevGal Sally Coleman)

Wednesday Prayer: Leaning into Darkness

Leaning Into Darkness

Draw me into the depths.
Take me down to the holy darkness to Love’s roots.
I lean into that darkness,
The darkness that surrounds me,
This nurturing room for my restless spirit.

Let me borrow your eyes, Beloved.
Then I shall see in the dark, though for answers I do not look.
It is enough to wait,
To wait in the holy darkness,
This nurturing womb for Love’s yearning.

Listening to the sound of silence,
And leaning into the song of darkness, I wait for You.
Waiting with purpose for who I will become,
Waiting without agenda for things I can not change,
I become one with the One I love,

For I have seen too many stars,
Too many stars to let the darkness overwhelm me.

I keep vigil:
with my heart’s eternal questions, and with my deep longings.
with those places in my being where the light has grown dim.
with those whose hearts are tired, & with those whose hope is lost.
for those who sleep and for those who can not rest.
for those with fearful hearts, and for those whose hearts are angry.
for those whose courage is waning and for those whose strength is growing.
for those who suffer, and for those who keep vigil.

I keep vigil. I keep vigil. I keep vigil. I keep vigil,

For I have seen too many stars,
Too many stars to let the darkness overwhelm me.

Macrina Wiederkehr, Velma Frye
(found at Erie Benedictines)

Wednesday Prayer: The Flame of Your Love

Let the flame of your love never be quenched in our hearts, O Lord. Waking or sleeping, living or dying let us delight in your presence. Let the flame of your love brighten our souls and illumine our path, and let the majesty of your glory be our joy, our life and our strength now and for ever. Amen.

Johann Arndt (1555-1621)

Wednesday Prayer: Welcoming the Stranger

Welcoming the stranger puts oneself and one’s community at risk. At best, the stranger is disruptive, bringing strange ideas and new, even wrong, ways of doing things. At worst, the stranger is dangerous, bringing disease, dishonor or violence. Welcoming the stranger is risky: everyone will be changed, host and guest alike…. And we cannot know ahead of time what the changes will be.

Amy Oden
Source: God's Welcome: Hospitality for a Gospel-Hungry World

God,

Help us remember times when we have been the stranger

how that feels

Help us to revive that feeling for ourselves again and again

that we may not be complacent, but alert, aware

that our joy may be full in each other 

and in you

Amen

Choosing God

To choose God
is to realize that you are known and loved
in a way surpassing anything one can imagine,
loved before anyone had thought of you
or spoken your name.
…
And so,
don’t talk too much about God
but live
in the certainty that God has written your name
on the palm of God’s hand.
Live your human task
in the liberating certainty
that nothing in the world can separate you
from God’s love for you.

Anonymous

Source: Rule for a New Brotherseen in Inward/Outward, Church of the Saviour

Send Wisdom

Antiphon (mantra) repeat quietly:
 
You, O God, endure forever; grant us life by your word.

Canticle: Wisdom 9:1-4, 9-11

God of Mercy,
you have made all things by your word.
In your wisdom you have appointed me
to care for all creatures,
to govern the world in holiness and justice,
with integrity of heart.
Grant me Wisdom, always present with you;
reject me not from among the faithful.

With you is Wisdom, who knows your works
and witnessed the world's beginning,
who understands what is pleasing to you
and what agrees with your commands.

Out of your glory, send Wisdom
to be with me and work with me.
Wisdom knows and understands all things
and will guide and protect me in all that I do.

from Erie Benedictines

A Prayer of St. Benedict

I am leaving today for a four-day Benedictine retreat, and I leave you with this prayer of St. Benedict of Nursia. 

While I am away, I will be holding many of you in prayer individually, and all of you, as a community of faith. I am grateful to be a part of RevGalBlogPals.

Gracious and holy Father,
please give me:

intellect to understand you;
reason to discern you;
diligence to seek you;
wisdom to find you;
a spirit to know you;
a heart to meditate upon you;
ears to hear you;
eyes to see you;
a tongue to proclaim you;
a way of life pleasing to you;
patience to wait for you;
and perseverance to look for you.

Grant me:
a perfect end,
your holy presence.
A blessed resurrection,
And life everlasting.

When Someone Moves On

God,

We know that our time on earth is not permanent
and our time with each other is not forever.

It is hard, though, when someone leaves us
They have a new job
They have a new relationship
They have a new life

And we are glad for them!

But we are sad for ourselves.
The shine has gone off things.
We mourn.

How will we manage? How will we do the things we have always done?

And the answer comes:

We will do things differently

It will hurt

But we will survive it

Every parting is an instruction in the great parting

and every leave-taking a reminder that one day

We will all sit at The Big Table with you.

Amen.

Oh Dear

God, it was my day to post a prayer

and I just got so busy I forgot.

Not just to post a prayer

but to pray.

Thanks for talking with me, anytime. 

Love, me

Wednesday: Mary May

Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoo call
Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation. 

Image above: Mary, the Holy Mother of God by Melissa Strickler.

Words above from The May Magnificat by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89). Read the entire poem HERE.
 
- from Episcopal Café Art Blog

Wednesday Prayer: In Stress

Good morning, God

Today I need to remember
that I am not the pure center of the universe

and that you are sitting in that chair next to me

no matter the unexpected frustrations the day may throw at me

you are there

you will advise me on the best way to catch the Big Crazy Thing

you will cheer for me when I dismount the beam where I am balancing.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Image: Bruce Bane

Wednesday Prayer: Conscientious Objector

May 15 is observed by many as International Conscientious Objector's Day.  

Conscientious Objector

I shall die, but
that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;
I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,
business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
But I will not hold the bridle
while he clinches the girth.
And he may mount by himself:
I will not give him a leg up.

Though he flick my shoulders with his whip,
I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where
the black boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;
I am not on his pay-roll.

I will not tell him the whereabout of my friends
nor of my enemies either.
Though he promise me much,
I will not map him the route to any man's door.
Am I a spy in the land of the living,
that I should deliver men to Death?
Brother, the password and the plans of our city
are safe with me; never through me
Shall you be overcome.

 

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Wednesday Prayer: Breathe in Us

God,

There is so much fear and uncertainty in our lives today.
It washes over our entire culture
In our churches, our classrooms, our grocery stores and government offices
people seem to collectively hold their breaths
or, instead, blow out their breaths in angry, fearful exclamation, in shouting
 
We as your people in the world are stretched thin
It affects us too.
Our own homes, workplaces, relationships are made difficult.

We pray to bear the breath of your Holy Spirit 

In us, out of us, through us

We pray for peace in the world and in hearts.