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 8, 2015
Lead us by your light, O Lord: that we might shine like the sun.
Psalm 43: 1 – 4
Give judgment for me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people: deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked. For you are the God of my strength; why have you put me from you?: and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me? Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me: and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling; that I may go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy and gladness: and on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God.
Lead us by your light, O Lord: that we might shine like the sun.
Maria Skobtsova, a twentieth-century nun remembered in Russia as Mother Maria, said, “I am your message, Lord. Throw me like a blazing torch into the night, that all may see and understand what it means to be a disciple.”
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Lord God, when the hungry are fed, the sick healed, the lonely made family, the outcast brought in, the sinner forgiven, the tyrant transformed, and the enemy reconciled, we know your work by the fruit it produces. May our lives bear fruit worthy of your name. 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.