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 11, 2015
We need your help against the enemy: for human help is useless.
Psalm 60: 1– 4
O God, you have cast us off and broken us: you have been angry; oh, take us back to you again. You have shaken the earth and split it open: repair the cracks in it, for it totters. You have made your people know hardship: you have given us wine that makes us stagger. You have set up a banner for those who fear you: to be a refuge from the power of the bow.
We need your help against the enemy: for human help is useless.
Third-century martyr Agnes of Rome said, “You may stain your sword with my blood, but you will never be able to profane my body, consecrated to Christ.”
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Quiet our anxious spirits, Lord, and help us enjoy the peace you give which the world cannot take away. 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.