Prayers and reflections
8.10.20
For those who are finding things tough right now:
When every day holds sadness
When everything seems cast in grey
When even the simplest task feels like a struggle
May you know you are not alone
May you know there are those who care
May you feel supported and cherished
May hope arise with each new dawn.
1.10.20
Loving God
In the living in changed times
May we find you;
In the making of space for others
May we discover you;
In the washing of hands
May we know you;
In the wearing of masks
May we reveal you;
In the restrictions we face
May we offer our neighbour, your gift of life.
Amen.
01/05/20
Praying for how we might benefit from this period of our lives, based on John 15.
Loving Gardener,
tender of the vine of my life,
I thank you for your care and nurture.
In this new season,
this unexpected change of climate,
thank you for keeping me fed and watered.
Thank you for all the evidence I can see around me
of your presence and attention.
I thank you too for your pruning.
It has been hard and painful
to have had so many parts of my life removed.
I miss them. I grieve for them.
I feel more vulnerable without them;
limited; less substantial; less me.
And yet I can see there is now space for new growth.
I can understand that the strength these branches drew from me
can now be used for new things.
I can notice the fruit you are forming
and devote my energy into helping it flourish,
new parts of me not there before,
which can be ultimately used to feed and nourish others
and generate new life elsewhere.
And so I praise you for your faithful, unending love,
I pray for your continued protection and provision
and I ask that I may so live in the love of Christ
and his love live in me
that the fruit of this season might last forever.
28.4.20
A blessing.
When the pain of loss is agonising
When the sorrow of loss is harrowing
When the frustration of loss is unending
When the loneliness of loss is devastating
When the fear of loss is overwhelming
When the desperation of loss is mounting
May you remember that God is with you
and that God alone is enough.
26/3/20
This prayer was written three days after the start of lockdown, when we were all reeling with the sheer effort and loss and bewilderment that went with it.
Lord, I am weary, may I be renewed.
Lord, I am worn, may I be refreshed.
Lord, I am broken, may I be restored.
May your peace guard my heart and mind.
Fix my thoughts on what is true.
Hold me in your perfect peace
as today I trust in you.
31/3/20
This morning I have been thinking of the recent conversations I have had and the posts I have read on social media along the lines of how, in this strange new world, we are finding those we love so irritating and discovering ourselves morphing into tetchy tyrants. In the process of my reflecting on how a prayer regarding this might be expressed, the words of Ps 51:10 in The Message jumped off the page ‘Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life’. The prayer I ended up with therefore has those words sitting rather incongruously in the middle!!!
Lord
I pray for today and all that it will hold.
Let me not hanker after what it cannot be.
Let me not despair at what it will be.
Lord
you search me and you know me
you are familiar with all my ways;
you hear the words on my tongue
you observe the thoughts in my mind
you scrutinise my innermost feelings.
Forgive me when my thoughts are not your thoughts
you are familiar with all my ways;
Lord
in your compassion
reach out and heal all that is hurting
all that is broken,
all that is dis-eased.
Restore in me the joy of your salvation,
put fresh wind in my sails,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life,
make my shattered heart ready to love once more.
Turn my wailing into dancing,
my lamenting into praise.
Lord
as I face today and all that it will hold
search me and know my heart,
test me and know my anxious thoughts,
see if there is any offensive way in me
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Breath in the breath of God
31/3/20
Our church is ‘meeting’ for prayer at 10am every Wednesday. So at the end of last week I asked everyone to identify three words to describe how they are feeling and send them to me so I could put them all together in a prayer. This is what we will be praying:
Loving God, in this strange, different, surreal new existence
we pray for ourselves:
come to be with us
in our bewilderment, confusion and uncertainty,
our moments of panic and insecurity;
in our feeling caged, frustrated, annoyed,
lonely, helpless, disconnected;
come to be with us
in our longing to see and hold our dear ones,
and our concern for their well-being;
in our feelings of inadequacy
and stress over new technological demands;
come to be with us
in our grief for the normality we have lost,
in our sorrow in the face of sickness and death,
in our feeling nervous and anxious in the present
and our wariness, apprehension and fear of what the future might hold.
Hold us and protect us, release us from fear, strengthen and guide us.
We also come to thank you:
for the joy you are giving us in birds and flowers and signs of spring;
for our sense of gratitude for life itself and all you are providing;
for the love and support of one another and sense of unity,
for a sense of amazement at your greatness and presence;
for helping us feel blessed, calm and securely held;
for reassuring us that this will end and there is hope for the future.
In you, O Lord, we put our trust.
9/4/20
Written in response to last night’s clap for carers.
And hands clapped
and voices cheered
and faces smiled
and skin goosed
and hearts thumped
and eyes pricked
and throats tightened
and together we said thanks
and wondered why it had to take something so bad
to evoke something so good.
13/4/20
This was written for one of our church members whose mother died yesterday, Easter Sunday morning.
Lord Jesus,
today I stand in a garden of shadows
a place of tombs
weeping at the loss
of all that was
togetherness
touch
mirth.
May I sense you
standing by my side,
may I hear your voice
speaking my name,
may your words
fill me with hope.
17/4/20
Written for us to pray together as a church this coming Sunday morning.
Sundays used to be a day
to be different
to step off the treadmill of work
to escape from the lure of the shops
to take time out from pressure and stress.
A day
to refocus our gaze on you
to share fellowship with your people
to rejoice together in your goodness
to listen to your voice
to minister encouragement and grace.
.
May this Sunday
still be different from other days
still be a Sabbath rest
still be a time to take a break.
But may it also be a time
to hear the groans of your creation
to lament for your world
to pray for your people
to give to those in need
to use our gifts to help others
to lift up the weak and
to comfort the broken-hearted.
.
May we not so much dwell
on what Sundays used to be
as imagine what Sundays might become.
Amen