RevGalPrayerPals: Friday Prayer: Open-Ended

Breath of Life- within and without-

Holy is your name.

     Strengthen my desire for you. 

You are ever with me. 

     Increase my awareness of your presence. 

You know all my desires. 

     Receive the prayers of my heart. 

You are the peace that passes all understanding. 

    Favor me with a glimpse of that peace. 

Amen. 

Friday Prayer: For Racial Harmony

For Racial Harmony

God of all, in your love you made all the nations of the world to be a family, and your Son taught us to love one another.

Yet our world is riven apart with prejudice, arrogance, and pride.

Help the different races to love and understand one another better.

Increase among us sympathy, tolerance, and goodwill,that we may learn to appreciate the gifts races and ethnicities may share with one another, and to see in all people our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.

Save us from jealousy, hatred, and fear, and help us to live together as members of one family at home in the world, sons and daughters of one Holy Parent who live in the liberty of the children of God;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Edited from the Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland 
(Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press, 1994)

Tuesday Lectionary Leanings: Peace and Joy Edition

Lessons for this coming Sunday can be found here .

Peace and joy. Joy and peace. Those words, and their connotations, can be found throughout our readings. No matter how bad things have been, or are -- it's not the end of the story. That's Jesus' message to his frightened, uncomprehending friends. It's the message Peter proclaims to his listeners in the reading from Acts. And it's the message of the Epistle lesson as well.

Perhaps I'm in an unseasonably pensive mood this morning, but I experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance visiting the lessons after first skimming through a contentious online Christian forum I frequent where the atmosphere is anything but peaceful and joyful, even in the glorious wake of Easter Sunday.

Why is it so hard for us to live into Christ's peace? Do we even understand what peace means? Why do the "Easter people" often seem to be the least joyful of all?

What would our faith communities look and sound like if we truly let ourselves believe that Christ's resurrection gives us reason to be peaceful and joyful right here, right now?

As always, please post your thoughts and ideas and questions here.