Author: Jonnyfun.E

Now retired, and enjoying making music and writing. Living in Gloucester, historically an important port on the river Severn, and situated with The Forest of Dean and the Brecon Beacons to the west, and the beautiful Cotswolds to the east.
Prayer

Morning Prayer For A Wednesday

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Before Prayer

The night has passed and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind. 

As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you.
Amen

Opening Prayer. **

O God, we come to remind ourselves
that your Holy Spirit is present deep within us
and at the heart of all life.
Open our minds to your truth,
warm our hearts with your love,
enliven our spirits with the breath of your Holy Spirit
and touch our wills
that we may walk in your way;
the way that leads to life,
the life of the age to come,
life in all its fulness.
Amen

The psalm of the day
suggested – 16, 29, 42, 63, 139

‘Kyrie’ prayer

Lord God, you love us as a parent loves their children
Lord, have mercy

Lord Jesus, you are the promised anointed one of God
Christ, have mercy

Holy Spirit, we wait for you to come in power
Lord, have mercy

Collect / Affirmation of Faith

God of all times.
Past, present, future.
God of our times.
History, humanity.
God of this time
Now. Life. Here.
God in time,
often just in time.

Timeless God,
take this moment
and inhabit it.
imbue it with your presence.
Amen

Scripture reading(s) for the day

Prayer of thanksgiving or prayer of concern.

For the beauty of creation;
for leaf, and flower, and birdsong,
Creator God, I thank you.
For this human life;
and the journey of growth twards you,
Lord Jesus, I thank you.
For companions on the way;
and adventures in faith yet to come,
Holy Spirit, I thank you.

Blessing ***

Be the eye of God dwelling with you;
the foot of Christ in guidance with you;
the shower of the Spirit pouring on you,
richly and generously.
God’s peace to you,
Jesus’ peace to you,
Spirit’s peace to you
and to your children,
oh to you and your children,
each day and night
of your portion in the world.
Amen.

** Acknowledgement: adapted and expanded from
a prayer in the Iona Community prayer book,
page 53 in my edition.

*** Traditional celtic blessing
– Carmina Gadelica (Alexander Carmichael)
from Celtic Devotions (Calvin Miller)


Creativity, · Poetry · Prayer

Prayer Before A Locked Door

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We met with some friends on Zoom yesterday to share some thoughts about writing our own psalms.
This is more of a poem than a prayer, but poems and prayers are often very similar

A lock – a lock of hair
a reminder of the first time that we cut her hair
kept in a small box
somewhere
If I ever open the box,
the feeling is one of precious memory

A lock – on the canal, just down the road
I remember standing, watching an older couple
suddenly burst into action
she on the rudder
he on the bank, shoulder to the whatever you call it
opening the lock gate
to allow the journey to continue

A lock – a lock in actually
not that I’ve experienced one for a very long time
– a surreptitious gathering after closing time
when we were invited to stay
and have another drink, or two, or three, or more
feeling a sense of belonging on a Saturday night

A lock – something that stops you
you stand before it without the key
wanting to open that door
to see what’s on the other side
but you either can’t find the key
or maybe it’s genuinely lost for ever
or maybe it doesn’t even exist

A lock – a locket
contains something that’s close to your heart
it’s always there around my neck
even when that door is closed

Prayer

Morning Prayer For A Tuesday

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Before Prayer

The night has passed and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind. 

As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you.

Opening Prayer. **

Today,
Lord, set your blessing on us
as we begin this day.
Confirm in us the truth by which we rightly live
Confront us with the truth from which we wrongly turn.
I ask not for what I want,
but for what you know I need –
as I offer you this day,
and myself;
for you,
and to you,
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
Amen.

The Psalm of the day

Possible Psalms – 2, 11, 12, 85, 124, 146.

‘Kyrie’ Prayer

The Lord is about to pass by
Lord, have mercy.

Your face, Lord, do I seek
Christ, have mercy

Your law is life
Lord, have mercy

Collect / Affirmation of faith

God of justice,
whose ways are goodness,
and whose word is true;
you show us glimpses of the life of the age to come
in your often hidden,
alternative world of the Spirit.
Strengthen us as we seek to be
the presence of Christ in the world.
Amen

Scripture reading(s) for the day

Prayer of thanksgiving or prayer of concern.

we pray for the poor –
that they may receive the kingdom of God.
For the lowly –
may they be lifted up.
For the hungry –
may they be filled.
For the widow, the orphan and the stranger –
may they know justice.

For us all –
may we be bringers of peace,
hungry for justice,
active in service,
loving with humility,
now and always,
Amen.

Blessing ***

May the God of power and love
strengthen you as you cease to do evil,
learn to do good,
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan
and plead for the widow and the stranger.
Amen

** Acknowledgement: This prayer is from the Iona Community Worship Book, page 103 in the edition I have, entitled
‘Lord, set your blessing on us.’

*** Adapted from Isaiah 1 verse 16

Prayer

Morning Prayer For A Monday

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Monday – Creation

Before Prayer

The night has passed and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind. 

As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you.
Amen

Opening Prayer.

COME CLOSE
come closer.
Listen with your heart.
Let yourself be touched by the hand of God.
Feel the enormous warmth.
Rest to be revived
Live again in the light of this new day.

The psalm of the day

‘Kyrie’ prayer

Creator God,
You are the source of all life
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus Christ
You lead us to the Father
Christ, have mercy

Holy Spirit
You guide us into truth
Lord, have mercy.

Collect / Affirmation of Faith

I am In your presence,
Creator of heaven and earth,
Lord of the universe and all that is in it.
You are the One who is never far from us,
the One in whom we live, and move and have our being.
Amen.

Scripture reading(s) for the day

Prayer of thanksgiving or prayer of concern.

God of earth and sea and sky,
God of flesh, and joy and sigh,
God of every seam of life.

In the quiet of the garden,
with the hum of traffic
and the urgent sound of siren,
cover all with your patient love.

Plant in us seeds of hope,
and renew our faltering faith,
so that our purpose and our passion
may be driven by heaven sent engines,
to bring all things in creation
to one glorious whole,
alive in harmony.
Amen.

Blessing

Today,
may I own my poverty,
celebrate the reality of abundance,
walk in the way of Christ,
and live with open hands
to receive the goodness of all God’s gifts.
Amen.

Art and Design · community · Creativity, · Poetry · Prayers

Are You A Creative Person ?

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If you saw my previous post – a photo of a padlock on a rotting wooden door … I wonder what it made you think of ?

On Thursday last week, I started on a four week exploration of creativity with Jonny Baker. It’s just an hour a week on Zoom to help get the creative brain working.

The first thing we were asked was – “Do you think of yourself as creative ?”
Then he asked – “Do you think that everyone is creative ?”

I wonder how you would answer ?

We then spent some time listening to three people, telling us a bit about their creative endeavours.

We were then asked to come up with some ideas about how to combat loneliness in our neighbourhood whilst this lockdown is going on. Within a minute the chat in Zoom was full of ideas.

I’m guessing that most of the 270 participants were churning out ideas … but how good to have other people thinking about it with you. We were encouraged to have a conversation with someone in the week – either carrying on the ideas about cobatting loneliness … or whatever …

On a similar track, together with a few friends, we’re sharing some ideas about psalm writing. The psalms is a book of prayers in the Bible, and one of our friends suggested we worked on writing some of our own. The psalms usually come out of some intense experience of life … I’m working on that today in preparation for the chat with our friends tomorrow when we share our thoughts.

Grace and peace.

By the way – Tomorrow I’ll post my morning prayer for Monday, and then post each day through this week.

A Prayer For This Day · faith · Following Jesus · Prayers

Morning Prayer Through The Week

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I have tried all sorts of ways of giving some structure to my prayer, and in lockdown have found something that is working for me. In the past I’ve found that most of the things I’ve tried have either too many words, or not enough to feel that I’ve done anything.
So – I’ve been collecting prayers – some from other sources, and some home grown, and have this to offer. Each day has a theme, and the same structure for each day, as follows

Opening Prayer.


The psalm of the day
(I’m currently using a book by Walter Brueggemann – Gift and Task – that has suggested psalms and Bible readings for each day – you decide how much and what exactly you put in here, but having a part of a psalm as part of it is, I think, a good discipline)


‘Kyrie’ prayer
The Kyrie prayer is is a short prayer that is important in Christian worship. It is a prayer from the heart about human need. God owes us nothing. Everything he gives comes from his mercy. (Kyrie is the Greek word for Lord)

Collect
A Collect prayer – so called because in public worship the prayer gathers together the silent prayer of the assembled company in one prayer.  It has a particular form as follows:
1 God is addressed
2 Something is said about God’s nature, or God’s work
3 A request is made
4 A reason for the request (usually in relation to what was said about God)
5 An ‘Amen’ or other ending. (what Padraig O Tuama calls ‘a bird of praise’

Scripture reading(s) for the day
See above … however much or little you need.

Prayer of thanksgiving or prayers of concern

Blessing

I also use this form of words before Prayer each day

The night has passed and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind. 
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you. Amen.

So to the 7 days and 7 themes.

Sunday – Resurrection and new life
Monday – Creation
Tuesday – Justice and Peace
Wednesday – The Holy Spirit
Thursday – Following Jesus
Friday – Forgiveness
Saturday – The Communion of Saints – believers past and present.

On Sunday at the monent, I’m using the form of morning prayer from the Northumbria community. Since I use this in its entirety, I won’t include it here, for copyright reasons, but you can find it here.
I have included it, because it’s the one thing in the past that I was able to use every day for a couple of years without getting bored with it.

Church · community · Prayer · Worship

A Great Many People Praying

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I was reading in Luke chapter 1 this morning. It’s about Mary’s cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, as they longed for a child. (Who would turn out to be John the Baptist).

5 During the time Herod ruled Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, married to Elizabeth. 6 Zechariah and Elizabeth truly did what God said was good. They did everything the Lord commanded and were without fault in keeping his law. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth could not have a baby, and both of them were very old.

8 One day Zechariah was serving as a priest before God, because his group was on duty. 9 According to the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to go into the Temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 There were a great many people outside praying at the time the incense was offered. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah, standing on the right side of the incense table. 12 When he saw the angel, Zechariah was startled and frightened. 13 But the angel said to him, “Zechariah, don’t be afraid. God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give birth to a son, and you will name him John.

The phrase that struck me was this: There were a great many people outside praying

As Zechariah is doing his work of leading God’s people in prayer, “A multitude of people are faithfully gathered at the temple to back Zechariah in prayer. Prayer is the context in which God acts most creatively, the environment in which his promises are announced and his work of salvation begins.”
Eugene Peterson in Praying with the Early Christians

In these days of Covid, I am struggling to work out what being part of a congregation means. We have our small group of Christian friends, and are working at mutual encouragement and support, but the congregational aspect of church life is hard.

I have been to a few of our services in church, and experienced that socially distanced, mask wearing, non singing way of being church together, which is ok up to a point.
I have watched pre-recorded services online, some of which have been very creative, using technology to involve members of a congregation in readings, leading prayers, singing at home etc
I have watched live services online at home, which at least has the benefit of being live.

But the sense of participation in worship, and the sense of being a part of a community in worship has been largely absent. I think this has resulted in me praying much less for our worship, and those who lead, even whilst my disciplines of prayer, reading of scripture and study at home have increased.

I’m challenged today to wrestle with this, to try and see a way to make congregational worship more a part of my life in these days.

Grace and peace.

faith · God · Jesus · Song for Today

The Canticle Of The Turning

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The message of Advent and Christmas is that God is doing something new.

As this song declares – The world is about to turn.

May you know the new thing that God will bring to birth in you.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas

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1 My soul cries out with a joyful shout
that the God of my heart is great,
and my spirit sings of the wondrous things
that you bring to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight,
and my weakness you did not spurn,
so from east to west shall my name be blest.
Could the world be about to turn?

Refrain
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.

2 Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
and your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
you will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn. Refrain

3 From the halls of pow’r to the fortress tow’r,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
ev’ry tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
there are tables spread, ev’ry mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn. Refrain

4 Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God’s mercy must deliver us
from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard
is the promise which holds us bound,
till the spear and rod can be crushed by God,
who is turning the world around. 

Church · faith

Which Jesus Floats Your Boat

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Ann Morisy, community theologian and author, talks about imitating Jesus. She is attracted especially by Jesus’ tendency to seek out the unlikely people. Uneducated fishermen; Tax Collectors, most of whom would have collaborated with the Roman authorities; Women, lacking in status and influence. Etc.

She tells of a project to locate a doctor’s surgery in a housing estate where there was no G.P. presence. The unlikely person was the phlebotomist, the one who took blood for testing. He was a reformed drug addict. Who better to find a vein ?!

So I’m asking myself the question … as I look at the life and work of Jesus, is there something that particuarly excites me ? Which Jesus floats my boat ?

Work in progress; I’m still thinking about that.

Grace and peace.