Prayer for families

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who settest the solitary in families: We commend to thy continual care the homes in which thy people dwell. Put far from them, we beseech thee, every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness. Knit together in constant affection those who, in holy wedlock, have been made one flesh. Turn the hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children to the parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among us all, that we may evermore be kindly affectioned one to another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer

Prayer for this week

The view from our room this week

Heavenly Father, in You we live and move and have our being. We humbly pray You so to guide and govern us by Your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget You, but may remember that we are ever walking in Your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

A Collect for Guidance
The Book of Common Prayer
 

Augustine's prayer

Watch, O Lord,

with those who wake,

or watch, or weep tonight,

and give your angels charge

over those who sleep.

Tend your sick ones,

O Lord Jesus Christ;

rest your weary ones;

bless your dying ones;

soothe your suffering ones;

pity your afflicted ones;

shield your joyous ones;

and all for your love's sake.

Amen.

HT:  The Autumn Rain

The Friday Clive

"There are, no doubt, passages in the New Testament which may seem at first sight to promise an invariable granting of our prayers. But that cannot be what they really mean. For in the very heart of the story we meet a glaring instance to the contrary. In Gethsemane the holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him. It did not. After that the idea that prayer is recommended to us as a sort of infallible gimmick may be dismissed."

The Friday Clive

"...The prayer preceding all prayers is 'May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.' Infinitely various are the levels from which we pray. Emotional intensity is in itself no proof of spiritual depth. If we pray in terror we shall pray earnestly; it only proves that terror is an earnest emotion. Only God Himself can let the bucket down to the depths in us. And, on the other side, He must constantly work as the iconoclast. Every idea of Him we form, He must in mercy shatter. The most blessed result of prayer would be to rise thinking 'But I never knew before, I never dreamed..." I suppose it was at such a moment that Thomas Aquinas said of all his own theology, "It reminds me of straw.'"

The Friday Clive

"We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us."

The Friday Clive

"Take not, oh Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in Thy great,

Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate."

The Fourth Sunday in Advent

I am not worthy, O Lord and Master, that You should enter under the roof of my soul; but since You in Your love for men do will to dwell in me, I take courage and approach. You command I will open wide the doors which You alone did create, that You may enter with love as is Your nature, enter and enlighten my darkened thought. I believe that You will do this, for You did not banish the Harlot who approached You with tears, nor did You reject the Publican who repented, nor did You drive away the Thief who acknowledged Your Kingdom, nor did You leave the repentant persecutor (Paul) to himself; but all who had been brought to You by repentance You did set in the company of Your friends, O You Who alone are blessed always, now and to endless ages. Amen.

~St. John Chrysostom~

Compline for a stormy Sunday night

Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness...

Look down, O Lord, from your heavenly throne, and illumine this night with your celestial brightness; that by night as by day your people may glorify your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The dark and the quiet

I needed the dark and the quiet last night. The demands of the evening caught me unprepared, and so I let it be known: I will be on the red bench. Yes, in the dark. Back soon.

Perhaps it is some sort of defect that makes my brain sizzle or stall when I need my wits most. Oh Well. It has been a blessing dressed in weakness's old rags. I am reminded that I cannot do it all, and that I must silence the cacophonic chorus demanding my attention.

It is in these moments of quiet when I am most drawn to prayer books, both the Orthodox Prayer Book and The Book of Common Prayer. I realize my hunger for the words of so great a cloud of witnesses who surround me. I find my whole self settling down.

It is not, after all, the activity or the people in my life that cause the discord. It is me, it is my turbulent soul, that needs quieting. A few minutes of prayers in the dark, prayers written to stand the test of time, barely lit by a candle's flame, and I can rejoin whatever is happening on the other side of the red door.