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.
March 15, 2015
Cleanse our hearts, Lord, by your Spirit: that we might praise your holy name.
Psalm 78: 34– 39
Whenever he slew them, they would seek him: and repent, and diligently search for God. They would remember that God was their rock: and the Most High God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths: and lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him: and they were not faithful to his covenant. But he was so merciful that he forgave their sins and did not destroy them: many times he held back his anger and did not permit his wrath to be roused. For he remembered that they were but flesh: a breath that goes forth and does not return.
Cleanse our hearts, Lord, by your Spirit: that we might praise your holy name.
Katherine Drexel, the patron saint of racial justice, said, “You have no time to occupy your thoughts with that complacency or consideration of what others will think. Your business is simply, ‘What will my Father in heaven think?’”
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Lord, make it second nature for us to do what is right in your sight. Make us more concerned with abiding by the tenets of your kingdom than by human law. 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.