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 26, 2015
Harriet Tubman (1820? – 1913) Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in the 1820s. In 1849, she had a vision that compelled her to run away, traveling under the cover of night with only the North Star as her guide. Arriving safely in Pennsylvania, she felt like she was in heaven. “I had crossed the line,” she wrote. “I was FREE; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom.” Tubman committed herself to helping others escape to freedom, guiding at least three hundred fugitive slaves to Canada over the course of fifteen years. To those who traveled under her guidance, she was known as Moses.
Go down, Moses, way down to Egypt land: and tell old Pharaoh, “Let my people go!”
Psalm 119: 153 – 56
Behold my affliction and deliver me: for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause and redeem me: according to your promise, give me life. Deliverance is far from the wicked: for they do not study your statutes. Great is your compassion, O LORD: preserve my life, according to your judgments.
Go down, Moses, way down to Egypt land: and tell old Pharaoh, “Let my people go!”
In a letter to Harriet Tubman, fellow abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote, “Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way … most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scared, and foot-sore bondsmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt ‘God Bless You’ has been your only reward.”
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Thank you, Lord, that throughout history there have been women whose steadfast faith and hope in you have brought about justice, freedom, and security for those who most needed it. We pray we can learn from women like Rahab and Esther and Harriet Tubman what it means to commit our lives to your service. 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.