Daily Common Prayer
As we move through lent this year we invite you to a practice of prayer and scripture that will connect you with God and to other past and present. For more info on the Book of Common Prayer check out the introduction at the end of this post.
February 25, 2015
On this day in 1994, a Jewish settler from New York entered the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron with an automatic weapon and killed twenty-nine Muslims during prayer, which has become known as the Hebron Massacre. This massacre has been a landmark in the conflict in the Middle East, which is so often fueled by religious extremists reacting to other religious extremists. It is a reminder that extremists of all faiths have distorted the best that our faiths have to offer, and it is our prayer that a new generation of extremists for love and grace will rise up.
God, help us shout the good news: in our songs and in our lives.
Psalm 119: 101 – 4
I restrain my feet from every evil way: that I may keep your word. I do not shrink from your judgments: because you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste!: they are sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your commandments I gain understanding: therefore I hate every lying way.
God, help us shout the good news: in our songs and in our lives.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “To show great love for God and our neighbor we need not do great things. It is how much love we put in the doing that makes our offering something beautiful for God.”
Prayers for Others (Take time to pray for people who come to mind)
Today, Lord, help us make our lives an offering of quiet commitment to thread love through the torn garments of society. Amen.
To practice the whole Daily Common Prayer, you can click here (it includes daily scripture, prayers and reflections)
Introduction to the Book of Common Prayer
Christians have been singing and praying and worshiping together for thousands of years. We can sometimes forget that and view our worship, our prayers as something we do on our own…private.
This year during the Lent season, we want to dive into an exciting, new (for us!) practice…of praying prayers with people around the world, from diverse places, traditions, denominations. We’re going to do this from what is called “The Common Prayer” (www.commonprayer.net), a book with prayers and scriptures for every day, called a “liturgy”.
Liturgy (literally means “the work of the people”) is a communal response to the sacred. Its something we do together, as a way to ground ourselves TOGETHER in Christ.
Every day you will have the chance to join people…in all parts of the world, praying some of these very same prayers. There is strength in numbers, and there is a powerful sense of unity that can come as people from diverse places and circumstances pray together, even though they have never met, and don’t even speak the same language.
We also want to encourage you to do this in community….whenever possible.
So maybe you want to find a common time in your home to pray these prayers and read these scriptures together, or include them at the beginning of your cell gatherings…to remind us that we are NOT on this faith journey alone, but are meant to live our lives in community.