For the Church VII

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the ‘blessed’ (already happy) is their mercy. This predilection for responding to human need in a way that leads to healing and forgiveness flows from their hunger and thirst to live rightly with God and neighbor (Matt. 5:6-7). For our greatest and most repeated need within our relationships is wholeness through forgiveness. More than civility or even kindness, our personal and societal relationships require that we seek the forgiveness of our debts (our sin) as we forgive our debtors (sins against us). Such is the way Jesus taught us to pray (Matt. 6:12, Lk. 11:4).

Knowing that the merciful are such because they have received mercy, let us pray for the church “A Prayer of Forgiveness,” penned by April Thomas and printed in Latisha Morrison’s “Be the Bridge” (121).

God, we thank you for your Word and everlasting love. Thank you for providing us a clear path to reconciliation, one that builds bridges, closes gaps, and showcases your plan for us all.

There is so much strife and conflict attempting to distract us from who you are, closing our minds and hardening our hearts against one another. We pray we are loosened from the chains of unforgiveness and that our hearts are softened toward one another so our journey forward together as your children will be victorious.

Help us to see your love in one another and strengthen our desire for community and oneness in you. Open our ears to listen to the stories of those around us so that we may better understand one another. Help us to release negative thoughts and ideas about others, even if there are past hurts, and to forgive.

Thank you for forgiving us and fiercely loving us even when we have chosen to turn our backs on you. It is only by your grace we are able to walk this path.

In your Son’s name, amen.

Direction & Consolation

The rhetoric and incivility of this week’s so-called “debate,” testify to our need for something more. For consolation because of the deplorable state of our nation’s leadership, and for those who suffer most because of its depravity. For direction for a way forward, something other than what we see on screens and hear from hubris. We need most desperately the comfort and command of our Father. And we, his children, to be what we are in Him, salt and light like the Son.

So we pray. We pray for direction and consolation and Christ-likeness together, through these words adapted from Earnest Campbell.

Father of all the families on earth, busy with every human being, believing in us more fully than we dare believe in ourselves,

grant us what we need to live more like Jesus:

a quiet mind,

a forgiving spirit,

indifference to wealth,

a humbler estimate of self,

a readiness to pray,

a clear vision of your purposes,

courage to do the right we know.

Command and comfort us, Father, for we need both direction and consolation. Then shall our order lives confess the beauty of your peace on earth as it is in heaven.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Church VI

Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The “earth” which we live has a name, Dallas. In Jeremiah 29, God says to his people that the way they go about living should be in the city, for the city, because in their blessed living so too would the city be blessed. So this week we pray that our [the Church] wills and actions would match our heavenly Father’s for this particular place on earth. Let us join together in these words adapted from Ernest Campbell,

We pray today for Dallas:

a microcosm of the ailments and aspirations of the world;

a representative sampling of Western culture at its best and worst;

emblematic of your Church’s strength and weakness;

an ordeal for many, a delight for some.

Raise us as a people, gracious Father, into a community in which the welfare of one becomes the concern of all. May we se our differences as assets rather than liabilities, occasions for growth rather than grounds for tension. Out of teeming multitudes grant that a new breed of humanity may surface for whom the common good will inspire nobler and more just forms of public service.

Bless the leaders of our city with decision-making wisdom and an irrevocable commitment to the equitable construction and enforcement of law. Help us as members of Christ’s body to more effectively relate our faith to life as it is lived in our city. Make us bearers of hope, champions of justice, and agents of reconciliation.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

His Kingdom Come

You and I wake into a world in which God rules. A world in which, despite the apparent evidences, is spinning not out of control, but instead is flowing towards a certain future. The kingdom of heaven in which we enter, is a life of intimate purpose, and humble submission. Let us join together through the adapted words of John Baillie to pray for His kingdom to come and will to be done in and through our faith family this week…and beyond.

Our Father in heaven, you are the hidden Source of all life. Help us today, and throughout the week, to meditate on your great and gracious plan that mere mortals like us should look up to you and call you Father.

In the beginning you, the uncreated, released your creative power;

And then space and time and matter;

The atom and the molecule and crystalline forms;

The first germ of life;

And then the long upward striving of life;

The things that creep and fly, the animals of the forest, the birds

of the air, the fish of the sea;

And then the gradual down of intelligence;

And at last the making of human beings;

The beginning of history;

The first altar and the first prayer.

O hidden love of God, it is your will that all created spirits should live forever in pure and perfect fellowship with you. Grant that in our life today and this week, that we may do nothing to defeat this, your most gracious purpose. Help us to keep in mind that your whole creation is groaning in labor pains as we wait for the revealing of the children of God to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the city on hill; and let us welcome every influence of your Spirit upon our spirits that may make this happen more speedily.

When you knock on the door of our hearts, may we never keep you standing outside, but welcome you in with joy and thanksgiving. May we never harbor anything in our hearts that we would be ashamed of in your presence; may we never keep a single corner closed to your influence.

Do what you will with us, O Father; make of us what you will, change us as you will, and use us as you will, both now and in the larger life beyond;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Church V

The apostle Paul talks about the church as an amalgamation of a variety of parts and giftings which come together to be one body of Jesus. This coming together has been the proverbial “thorn in the flesh” or Christ’s body as far back as stories go. While the pang for unity without uniformity is a persistent pressure, it has also been a primary prayer of Jesus’ for us (see Jn. 17), and the faithful for one another. So this week, at a time when our society is emphasizing our division, let us join with Ernest Campbell in this prayer for the Church to find harmony. For our sake, and, the sake of our city and nation and world.

Our Father who has willed a variety of gifts in the one body of your Son, your church, hear us.

Hear us as we pray for a more productive fusion of insights and abilities among your people;

guard us against wasteful rivalries and unwarranted divisions

to the end that each may rejoice in the gifts and talents of the other

In particular, we pray that white and black, democrat and republican, male and female, sisters and brothers may march together as beneath one banner in the spirit of mutual trust and interdependence.

Whatever the nature of our work, help us, Father, to do it unto you.

Let our shops and offices, our schools and factories, our streets

and homes feel the influence of Christ through us.

Use our assorted skills and aptitudes in the manner of a

conductor with an orchestra, calling out this instrument,

then that; this section, then another, to offer their best in a

grand performance of the work at hand.

Tune us to your will, and harmonize us with each other and with you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

All We Need Is Jesus

Remembering who God is for us, especially through the Son, is pivotal to enduring faith. So together we pray that we and our sisters and brothers would find all we need in Jesus through this prayer adapted from John Ballie. Let us pray…

O God, immortal, eternal, invisible, let us remember with joy and thanksgiving all that you have been to us:

Companion of the brave;

Supporter of the loyal;

Light of the wanderer;

Joy of the pilgrim;

Guide of the pioneer;

Helper of all whose work is heavy;

Refuge of the brokenhearted;

Deliverer of the oppressed;

Relief of the tempted;

Strength of the victorious;

Ruler of rulers;

Friend of the poor;

Rescuer of the perishing;

Hope of the dying.

Give us faith now to believe that you can be all in all for each of us, according to our need, if only we renounce all proud self-dependence and put our trust in you.

Forbid it, O Father, that the sheer difficulty of honoring you in our lives should ever tempt us to despair or give up trying. May we always keep in our minds that this human life was once divinely lived; that this world was once nobly overcome; and that this physical body, which so sorely troubles us now, was once made into your perfect dwelling place.

Show your loving kindness today and this week, O Father, to all who are in need of your help. Be with the weak to make them strong and with the strong to make them gentle. Cheer the lonely with your company and the distracted with your solitude. Prosper your Church in the fulfillment of its mighty task, and grant your blessing to all who have worked hard today and this week in Christ’s name.

Amen.

For the Church IV

Among the prophet Isaiah’s messianic visions is a picture of God’s people, the church, as a house of prayer. Writing in unison with the LORD, Isaiah says,

“the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,

to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,

to be his servants…

…even these I will bring to My Holy Mountain

And make them joyful in My House of Prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be

acceptable on My altar;

For My house will be called a house of prayer for

all peoples.”

(Isaiah 56:6-7)

Through the image of ourselves that the LORD paints for us in Isaiah, we pray for the church today with these adapted words from Ernest Campbell. Let us pray together,

Here, together, in this house of prayer, we pause to pray for ourselves, for the church.

Some of us carry a brokenness inside too deep for telling.

Some of us are madly in love with a past that can never be again.

Many of us are tired of trying to sustain the image of a self that no longer exists—or never did.

Not a few of us have grown hard and unmannerly from battling social wrongs, and we want to be civil again.

Others—more — of our number have become worldly wise and sophisticated at the expense of neglected prayer and a seldom-opened Bible, and we yearn to feel that oneness with you which marked our earlier years.

O Father whose name we bear,

you have loved us; love us still—

until our conflicts are resolved,

our imbalances are corrected,

and our sins, which are many, lose their appeal for us before

the beauty of your righteousness.

All this we pray in faith and with thanksgiving,

through Jesus Christ our LORD. Amen.

Calling Creation to Mind

Living and working in the city, a place full of human crafted splendor as well as squalor, can dull our senses to the grounding truths and cultivated compassions of the Creator’s crafting. But it does not have to be so. Though we may be far from the grandeur of the mountains or the majesty of the sea, though we may be shaded by skyscrapers and marveled by masses, we are near enough to the Creator’s work to be steadied and compelled by it. At least that is what we will be praying with and for one another using these words adapted from John Ballie.

Creator Spirit, who forever hovers over the lands and waters of earth, enriching them with forms and colors that no human skill can copy, give us today the mind and heart to rejoice in your creation.

Forbid that we should walk through your beautiful world with unseeing eyes;

Forbid that the attractions of the city and its stores and steel, its promises and playthings, should ever steal our hearts away from the love of open fields and green trees;

Forbid that under the low ceiling of office or classroom or workspace or study, we should ever forget your great overarching sky;

Forbid that when all your creatures greet the morning with songs and shouts of joy, we alone should wear a grumpy and sullen face;

Let the energy and vigor which in your wisdom you have infused into every living thing stir within in our being today, so that we may not be lazy or mindless bystanders among your creatures.

And above all, give us grace to use these beauties of earth around us and this eager stirring for life within us to lift our souls from creature to Creator, and from nature to nature’s God.

O Father, your divine tenderness always outsoars the narrow loves and kindness of earth. Grant us today a kind and gentle heart toward all things that live. Help us to take a stand against cruelty and misuse of any of your creatures and created things. Help us to be actively concerned—as you are—for the welfare of little children, and those who are sick, and of the poor, and those who suffer indignity by laws and by individuals, remembering that what we do for the least of these brothers and sisters of Jesus, we do for Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Church III

The body of Christ, as we have confessed routinely, is a work in progress! We are a mixed bag that seems at times to contradict itself, struggling to be faithfully present while in-step with our storied past. Aware of our polar tendencies that vary by the day and place and people, let us pray together “for the church” with this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell.

We pray, Father, for your church, scattered far and wide:

clinging to old ways in a new day, or else rushing to embrace the new in reckless abandon of the past;

here suffering from battle fatigue, there afflicted with inertia;

at times embarrassed by its Galilean accent, at other times so thoroughly assimilated to the surrounding culture as to lose all distinctiveness;

in some instances foolishly competitive, in others superficially merged around shallow affirmations;

often given to deeps uninterpreted by words, more often given to words unaffirmed by action.

Bless your church, Father, with divine guidance and direction,

that in the thick of life,

and at those points where people hurt,

we may be your servant people.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Daring to Pray

Distinguishing between want and need is no simple task for us humans. Perhaps that is why Jesus taught us to pray the way he did, focusing our attention on the will and way of the Father before getting into our daily details. In the same vein, we dare pray together this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell.

We pray now, gracious Father, for our needs, insofar as we can distinguish what we need from what we want.

We want friends; we need deliverance from overweening pride and playing the comparison games that puts others off.

We want light; we need discipline to sustain the search for truth amid the chaotic noise of our moment.

We want peace; we need patience and courage for that which makes for peace.

We want excitement; we need victory over distractions and artificial stimulants, and the character to face life as it is.

We want love; we need fidelity, the only context in which authentic love can flourish.

Destroy what is evil in us, O Father, and incline our hearts toward good.

All this we dare to pray,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

For the Church II

Eugene Peterson once described “the church,” a community of faith as “the least utilitarian grouping of persons on earth, and its essential nature less self-evident than any other category of persons.” We, “the church,” are a mess of an amalgamation, especially when it comes to effective participation in seeing “His kingdom come, His will done on earth as it is in heaven.” Which is all the more reason we should pray for “the church,” our faith family, and the family of our Father throughout our city, nation, and world.

Let’s join one another today in doing just that, through this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell.

Hear us, Father, as we pray for the Holy Catholic Church, your church:

proclaiming a better gospel than is ever lived;

panicked by the boisterous winds of change that whistle through its ranks;

aping the world in its dependence on wealth and pretentious plans, invoking the skills of online marketing to sell the Via Dolorosa;

ashamed at times of its beginnings: the cup, the cross, the towel;

and yet nevertheless the community of grace, loved and kept by YOU.

Give to your church, Father, the courage that comes from knowing

that Christ means to win that for which he died;

the faith that comes with the hearing of your Word;

the commitment to service that is born and nourished in communion with you;

the quality of life that comes when the cost of apprenticeship is

declared and the spirit-strengthened rise up to answer, ‘Yes.’

Revive your church, O Father.

Revive your church through us, we pray.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Keeping Faith Afloat

“The pandemic has taken a lot from us.” This phrase uttered by a godly woman in our faith family expressing her own heart could have been voiced by many of us. There is much that we have lost in this time: security, certainty, ability to avoid brokenness and injustice, personal interaction, hugs and handshakes, and the like. In the midst of transforming unrest, we join our faith family member in expressing our hearts as well, through these words adapted from Ernest Campbell.

Father, there are times when all that keeps our faith afloat is a sense of gratitude toward you. The headlines of the day beat us down, evil within us and about us lays us open to paralyzing doubt, and conviction leaves us confused. Then we recall your gifts of nature and of grace, and in that recalling, we find the power to go on, to go with you into tomorrow.

We thank you for reason and affection; for our unity with everything that lives and breathes; for poetry that utters what the heart holds; for laments that make our problems your problems; for friendships of long-standing that multiply our joys and temper our disappointments; and for new relationships that open up possibilities of what could be.

We thank you most that we live in dialogue with you; that we have proved prayer real and have known the strength of supporting love in our seasons of apparent defeat.

It is good that human beings should praise your name, and we gladly do it now, together.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For The Church

“the church” is a phrase I hear a lot. It is usually accompanied by a complaint, frustration, or even a deep wound. Sometimes hope and expectation are joined with it, but mostly “the church,”—whatever she may be in a person’s mind—at this moment in history appears to be little more than unmet potential. But what if our disappointment were met with fidelity rather than fodder, with bold meekness rather than defense? Perhaps then, we would be the church we expect and hope.

Let us join together in prayer for “the church,” with these words adapted from Ernest Campbell.

We pray in the unity of faith for the peace and integrity of YOUR church in a time of shattered certainties and seething revolution.

Refresh our memory of storms already past, lest we forget that every temptation that vexes us is common to humanity.

Inspire our theologians and prophets (in pews & pulpits) to search your mind and word with unswerving diligence, and help us to follow them as (and only when) we see them follow you.

Make us big enough to respond constructively and with repentance to those who care enough about the church to criticize. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”

Embolden us to forge new alliances with those writers, pod-casters, and protesters of our day who are one with us in their desire to lament what is broken and hope for what is certain.

So conscious, Father, of what we lack, awaken us to the imperishable worth of what we have:

the Word of life,

the Savior’s presence,

a fatih family of millions,

union with the church above,

and faith so potent that a speck the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain.

We love “the church,” YOUR church, O Lord, and for its good we offer our best.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Becoming Like Jesus

In a time when division is clear and self-assumptions run rampant, let us confess and cling to what is true, that our Father’s desire is for life, not death, unity, not segregation, and meekness not pride. Let us as pray with and for one another this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell, that what we intend and what we choose will indeed be that which allows us to become like Jesus.

O Father, whose will for us is life not death,

forgive us the blindness and perversity that keep us from

choosing life;

help us to act on the truth we know lest we lose it and fall back;

spare us the hypocrisy of assuming that our convictions are

objectively pure while our brother’s or sister’s point of view is slanted

with self-interest;

when our grasp of you is weak, keep firm your hold on us;

when what you are is most hidden from our eyes, help us to

cling to what you command.

May it be our joy and uppermost intention

to rest in you,

to work for you,

to become like you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Remembering What We Have

Our tendency, especially in view of God’s greatness and beauty, is to recognize how much we lack. Couple that with marketing that is consistently telling us that we are lacking and in need of so much more than we have, and its no wonder than many of us often feel wanting, even in the life of promised abundance. So, let us pray with and for one another a prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell to remind us to remember all that we have.

Let’s pray together,

O Father, the source of all things good, grant that we who are inclined to remember what we lack may not forget what we have.

We bless you for the warmth of summer; for lengthened days, green grass, blooming flowers, and all the scents and sounds and colors that declare your creative glory.

We thank you for the interflow of ideas, the sharing of convictions, the ability to receive and infuse hope, and the play of divine truth on the human spirit.

Our highest praise we reserve for you, our Father, whose mercy is the same from age to age, and whose life-giving grace has been declared and pledged to us in Jesus Christ.

Center our far-ranging lives in your eternal love, that in whatever time or circumstance we may know and celebrate and respond with worship and love to your presence.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Worth Repeating

We prayed this prayer together and for one another just over two months ago in response to Jesus’ stirring up a new and never-the-same-again life. It seems like it is a prayer worth repeating at this moment. So, let us once again join in praying for one another that we might have the same heart that compelled Jesus to do what he did for our sake and that having a heart like Jesus, we too might do what is necessary for one another and our neighbors.

This is an adapted prayer from John Ballie.

O Heavenly Father, give us a heart like the heart of Jesus, a heart more ready to serve than be served, a heart moved by compassion towards the weak and oppressed, a heart set upon the coming of Your kingdom in the world of women and men in which all are your beloved children.

We pray now, O God, for all the different kinds of people to whom Jesus gave special concern and care when he was on earth:

For those needing food or drink or clothes;

For the sick and all those who are wasted by disease of the body, of the mind, and of the soul;

For the blind, physically and spiritually;

For the disabled;

For people suffering from life-shattering diseases;

For prisoners in cells made of bars, cells made of fear, and cells made of pride;

For the socially and economically oppressed;

For those zealous for change;

For those who have suffered in no small part by the indifference of others;

For the homeless and all the lost sheep of our society;

For all victims of sexual exploitation and abuse;

For the lonely;

For all the single parents;

For the worried and the anxious;

For those who are living faithful lives in obscurity;

For those who are fighting bravely for unpopular causes;

For all those who are working diligently for you throughout your world.

Grant, O Father, that your loving-kindness in giving us so much may not make us less sensitive to the needs of others less fortunate, but rather move us to lay their burdens on our hearts. If we should experience adversity, help us not to brood on our sorrows, as if we were alone in the world of suffering; but rather help us to take time to serve, with compassion, those who need our help. Let the power of our Lord Jesus Christ be strong within us and his peace invade our spirit and our city.

Amen.

Joining In The Struggles

This week, as we continue to enter into the lives of one another and our neighbors through prayer, let us pray this timely words adapted from John Ballie, joining together in the struggles for life and freedom, and the sure hope of Jesus.

O God, our Father of all humankind, we bring before you now the burden of the world’s life. We join with the scattered and gathered multitudes who are in the streets and in their hearts crying out to you in their desperation—whether they say your name or not. Hear us, O Father, and look with compassion at our many needs and our many wounds, since YOU alone are able to satisfy all our desire.

We especially join with and commit to you:

All who are far from their family and friends—distanced by disease or divided by politics, race, opinions, fear, etc.;

All who must lie down hungry or cold;

All who suffer pain from chronic illness (social & physical);

All who are kept awake y anxiety;

All who are facing danger or fear of danger;

All who must work and keep watch to allow the rest of us freedom to live and stand up.

We ask you to give us—they and we with them in spirit—all such a sense of your presence that our loneliness may turn to comfort and our trouble to peace.

O most loving God, you showed your love to us in Jesus your Son, by relieving all kinds of suffering and disease, by releasing the captives and oppressed. Grant your blessing on all who are serving others in Christ’s name throughout the world to be a part of you doing the same still today:

All ministers of the gospel of Christ—whether paid or in their loving obedience,

All social workers and social change agents;

All doctors and nurses who faithfully tend the sick;

All who work to see your peace brought in this and every land, regardless of what side of the line they kneel.

Through us—they and we with them in spirit and action—accomplish your great purpose of goodwill to all people, and grant us in our own hearts the joy of Christ’s very real presence.

Grant to us also, O gracious Father, the joy of a life surrendered to Christ’s service and the peace of forgiveness granted through the power of Jesus’ cross.

Amen.

Resting In Grace

This week we pray for ourselves and one another that the “graces of Christian character may more and more take shape within” us, and transform our community. This “evening” prayer is adapted from John Baillie, though you can pray it morning or night.

O Father, all treasures of wisdom and truth and holiness are stored up in your boundless being. Grant that through our constant fellowship wit you, those graces of Christian character may more and more take shape within us, for those around us:

The grace of a thankful and uncomplaining heart;

The grace to await your timing patiently and to answer your Spirit’s call promptly;

The grace to endure any hardship in the fight against evil;

The grace of boldness to stand up for what is right;

The grace of being adequately prepared for any temptation;

The grace of physical discipline;

The grace of truthfulness;

The grace to treat others as we would like them to treat us—to “love my neighbors as myself”;

The grace of sensitivity, that we refrain from hasty judgment;

The grace of silence, that we may refrain from thoughtless speech;

The grace of forgiveness toward all who have wronged us;

The grace of tenderness toward all who are weaker than ourselves;

The grace of faithfulness in continuing to desire and believe that you will answer these prayers.

And now, O Father, give us a quiet mind as we rest. Dwell in our thoughts until sleep or silence overtakes us. Do not let us be worried by the small anxieties of this life. Do not let any troubled dreams disturb us, so that we might wake (from sleep or prayer) refreshed and ready for all that this day and the next brings.

And Thou, O Lord, by whom are seen

Thy creatures as they be,

Forgive us if too close we lean

Our human hearts on Thee.

Amen.

A City-Dweller's Prayer

We usually try and spread out our encouragements throughout the week with Mondays' Psalms, Wednesdays’ Pastoral Notes, and Fridays’ Collective Prayers. But in light of the unrest and division of our city at this moment, we thought it would be helpful to get a head-start on our prayers together this week.

Earnest Campbell was the long-time pastor of Riverside Church in New York City. Over his years of living and ministering in the city, he crafted dozens of prayers to give voice to the Spirit’s heart for the place and people he loved now compiled in a book titled, Where Cross the Crowded Ways. At the beginning of the collection is a prayer called “A City-Dwellers Prayer.” This is Campbell’s consistent prayer, his trunk from which the prayers that followed branch out and bloom in detailed passion and beauty.

Your Gospel Community leaders have been using this prayer to pray for you and our city since the beginning of the year, and we’d like to invite you to join us. As you pray these words over and over again in the coming days, weeks, months and years; you’ll find the Spirit adding depth and color (names, faces, issues, injustices, hopes, expectations, convictions, and confidence) to particular sections at particular moments, as the Spirit joins our heart with his for our city. We are confident that the Spirit will do so today as well, at this moment, for this place and people we have been given to love. So, let us "city-dwellers" join together in prayer through the Spirit this day and for years to come.

A CITY-DWELLERS PRAYER

O God of every time and place,

prevail among us too;

Within the city that we love

its promise to renew.

Our people move with downcast eyes,

tight, sullen, and afraid;

Surprise us with your joy divine,

for we would be remade.

O God whose will we can resist,

but cannot overcome,

Forgive our harsh and strident ways,

the harm that we have done.

Like Babel’s builders long ago

we raise our lofty towers,

And like them, too, our words divide,

and pride lays waste our powers.

Behind the masks that we maintain

to shut our sadness in,

There lurks the hope, however dim,

to live once more as men.

Let wrong embolden us to fight,

and need excite our care;

If not us, who? If not now, when?

If not here, God then where?

Our forebears stayed their minds on you

in village, farm, and plain;

Help us, their crowed, harried kin,

no less your peace to claim.

Give us to know that you do love

each soul that you have made;

That size does not diminish grace,

nor concrete hide your gaze.

Grant us, O God, who labor here

within this throbbing maze,

A forward-looking, saving hope

to galvanize our days.

Let Christ, who loved Jerusalem,

and wept its sins to mourn,

Make just our laws and pure our hearts;

so shall we be reborn!

Amen.

Affective Prayer

Evelyn Underhill once said, “Each Christian’s life of prayer…however deeply hidden and solitary in form, will affect the life of the whole Body.” What you pray today and this week, these collective words and those prayed by the Spirit for you, reverberate within, refresh, and redirect your faith family, and (I’d argue) your neighbors. So, as you pray this prayer adapted from John Ballie, do so expectantly, confident in the God-given truth that “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person availeth much.” (James 5:16)

Almighty Father, thank you for your love which follows me and ____ (name your GC, family, friends, and neighbors) every day of our lives. Thank you that you fill my and ____ minds with your divine truth and strengthen my and ____ wills with your divine grace. Thank you for every indication of your Spirit leading me and ____, and for the things that seem like chance or coincidence at the time, but later appear to me and ____ as part of your gracious plan for my and ____’s spiritual growth. Help me and ____ to follow where you lead and never quench this light that you have ignited within us, rather let me and ____ grow daily in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus my and ____’s Lord.

Yet as I seek your presence, I bring before you my human brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends, who need your help. Especially today I pray for—

____ (name someone you know, wait for the Spirit to give a name if you need to) who is faced with great temptations;

____ who is faced with tasks too difficult for them;

____ who stands in the consequences of sin

____ who is in debt or poverty (financially or spiritually);

____ who is suffering the consequences of actions which they repented of long ago;

____ who through no fault of their own have had little chance in life;

____ whose family circle has been broken by death;

____ who is a missionary of the kingdom of heaven in a corner of the earth far from here;

____ who is lifting the light of truth in a lonely place;

____ who is struggling mentally and emotionally with the current moment;

and ____ and ____ and ____.

Dear Father of all, make me a human channel through which, as far as I am able, your divine love and pity may reach the hearts and lives of some of those who are nearest to me. Amen.