Tag: prayers

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8B

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! Psalm 130:1-2

Welcome!

The readings on Sunday, June 30, 2024 (Proper 8B) continue the story of David after the death of King Saul. Psalm 130 is a cry for attention and help and a confident expression that the Lord hears and will answer. There is a patient and hope-filled waiting.

Read Psalm 130 from the Tanakh. Listen carefully. In this translation, which words speak most clearly to your heart? What difference do these words make to you? To those you love?

Psalm 130:1–8 (Tanakh)

1A song of ascents. Out of the depths I call You, O Lord. 

2O Lord, listen to my cry; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy. 

3If You keep account of sins, O Lord, Lord, who will survive? 

4Yours is the power to forgive so that You may be held in awe. 

5I look to the Lord; I look to Him; I await His word. 

6I am more eager for the Lord than watchmen for the morning, watchmen for the morning. 

7O Israel, wait for the Lord; for with the Lord is steadfast love and great power to redeem. 

8It is He who will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.

View or download the handout we used in our Wednesday morning forum:

Click the image to view or download
our study guide

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*Most Wednesday mornings a group of us gather online to explore the readings that will be used in worship the following Sunday. This week’s handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (June 30, 2024) in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary. Please: View or download the handout we used to guide our discussion and tune our hearts to the Spirit.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings (NRSV translation) appointed for The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, June 30, 2024, on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Please return to this site throughout the week to keep learning.

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Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7B

“O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness…. ” Collect of the Day

Welcome!

The readings from Sunday, June 23, 2024 (Proper 7B) featured the story of David and Goliath. The verses from Psalm 9 came from a heart and a community that, through experience, trusted God in even the most difficult moments of life. Our* discussion focused on the Psalm. You are invited to join the Psalmist in lifting your heart to God.

Click image to view or download our study guide
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*Most Wednesday mornings a group of us gather online to explore the readings that will be used in worship the following Sunday. This week’s handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (June 23, 2024) in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary. Please: View or download the handout we used to guide our discussion and tune our hearts to the Spirit.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings (NRSV translation) appointed for The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, June 23, 2024, on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Please return to this site throughout the week to keep learning.

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Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise… Psalm 138:1 (NRSV)

Welcome!

Psalm 138 (NRSVue) gives thanks and speaks powerfully to the majesty and humility of the God who loves us. Sometimes it helps to hear more than one translation of the ancient text to discover new dimensions of our relationship with God.

Here is Psalm 138 from the New Jerusalem Bible:

1I thank you, Yahweh, with all my heart, for you have listened to the cry I uttered. In the presence of angels I sing to you, 

2I bow down before your holy Temple. I praise your name for your faithful love and your constancy; your promises surpass even your fame. 

3You heard me on the day when I called, and you gave new strength to my heart. 

4All the kings of the earth give thanks to you, Yahweh, when they hear the promises you make; 

5they sing of Yahweh’s ways, ‘Great is the glory of Yahweh!’ 

6Sublime as he is, Yahweh looks on the humble, the proud he picks out from afar. 

7Though I live surrounded by trouble you give me life—to my enemies’ fury! You stretch out your right hand and save me, 

8Yahweh will do all things for me. Yahweh, your faithful love endures for ever, do not abandon what you have made.

Here is Psalm 138 from the Tanakh:

1Of David. I praise You with all my heart, sing a hymn to You before the divine beings; 

2I bow toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your steadfast love and faithfulness, because You have exalted Your name, Your word, above all. 

3When I called, You answered me, You inspired me with courage. 

4All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord, for they have heard the words You spoke. 

5They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, “Great is the majesty of the Lord!” 

6High though the Lord is, He sees the lowly; lofty, He perceives from afar. 

7Though I walk among enemies, You preserve me in the face of my foes; You extend Your hand; with Your right hand You deliver me. 

8The Lord will settle accounts for me. O Lord, Your steadfast love is eternal; do not forsake the work of Your hands.

On Wednesday, June 5, 2024, we* read through the scriptures appointed for the Third Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 5, Year B. We spent most of our time reading and learning from Psalm 138 (NRSV)

As always, our sacred text (in its various English translations) questions us even as we speak, listen to, and hear the words:

  • Throughout the day, how often do you pause and give thanks? How often is thanksgiving done with all your heart? How might you experience or describe a half-hearted thanksgiving? A whole-hearted thanksgiving? (v. 1)
  • In verse 1 the Psalmist sings before “gods” (NRSV), “angels” (NJB), or “divine beings” (Tanakh). Which translation speaks to your heart? Why is that? Close your eyes, picture and feel and hear yourself singing your thanksgiving in such hallowed company. Well?
  • In the NRSVue verse 3 reads: “On the day I called, you answered me; “you increased my strength of soul.” The NJB translates God’s answer as “you gave new strength to my heart.” The Tanakh translates God’s answer as “You inspired me with courage.” Again, which translation speaks to your heart and why is that?

With these few examples from verses 1 and 3, I encourage you to allow the text (in various translations) to question you. Become quiet. Hear what the Spirit is saying to you. Hear how the Spirit—in the sacred text—both questions and encourages you.

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*Most Wednesday mornings a group of us gather online to explore the readings that will be used in worship the following Sunday. This week’s handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (June 9, 2024) in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary. Please: View or download the handout we used to guide our discussion and tune our hearts to the Spirit.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings (NRSV translation) appointed for The Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 9, 2024, on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Please return to this site throughout the week to keep learning.

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More thoughts on Sunday’s (June 9, 2024) readings

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Collect: Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop Missionaries to the Slavs, 869, 885 (Feb 14)

A timely prayer asking help to overcome strife by the love of Christ

Holy Trinity. Icon. Andrei Rublev.

The Collect for the Commemoration

Almighty and everlasting God, by the power of the Holy Spirit you moved your servant Cyril and his brother Methodius to bring the light of the Gospel to a hostile and divided people: Overcome all bitterness and strife among us by the love of Christ, and make us one united family under the banner of the Prince of Peace; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Today’s Collect is well timed in a world where division, violence and the threat of more violence is a constant companion. Along the Way of Love taught us by Jesus (in word and deed) we ask our God to assist us to “overcome all bitterness and strife … by the love of Christ” and unite as one “under the banner of the Prince of Peace.” May it be so in our words and deeds this day.

Learn more about these brothers

Cyril (born about 828) and Methodius (born about 817), brothers born in Thessalonika, are honored as apostles to the southern Slavs and as the founders of Slavic literary culture. Cyril was a student of philosophy and a deacon, who eventually became a missionary monastic. Methodius was first the governor of a Slavic colony, then turned to the monastic life, and was later elected abbot of a monastery in Constantinople.

In 862, the King of Moravia asked for missionaries who would teach his people in their native language. Since both Cyril and Methodius knew Slavonic, and both were learned men—Cyril was known as “the Philosopher”—the Patriarch chose them to lead the mission. Read more

from Holy Women, Holy Men

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Collect: Andrei Rublev, Monk and Iconographer, 1430 (Jan 29)

Generally acknowledged as Russia’s greatest iconographer, Andrei Rublev was born around 1365 near Moscow. His “writing” persists to this day.

Holy Trinity. Icon. Andrei Rublev.

Generally acknowledged as Russia’s greatest iconographer, Andrei Rublev was born around 1365 near Moscow. While very young he entered the monastery of The Holy Trinity and in 1405, with the blessing of his igumen (the Orthodox equivalent of abbot), he transferred to the Spaso-Andronikov monastery where he received the tonsure and studied iconography with Theophanes the Greek and the monk Daniel. Among his most revered works are those in the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir.

The icon (“image” in Greek) is central to Orthodox spirituality. It finds its place in liturgy and in personal devotion. An icon is two dimensional and despite being an image of someone it is not a physical portrait. Western art, especially since the Renaissance, has sought to represent figures or events so that the viewer  might better imagine them. A western crucifix seeks to enable us to imagine what Golgotha was like. Icons seek to  provide immediate access to the spiritual and the divine unmediated by the human, historical imagination. Read more

Holy Women, Holy Men

The Collect for the Commemoration

Holy God, we bless you for the gift of your monk and icon writer Andrei Rublev, who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, provided a window into heaven for generations to come, revealing the majesty and mystery of the holy and blessed Trinity; who lives and reigns through ages of ages. Amen.

Today’s Collect simply give thanks for “the gift of …monk and icon writer Andrei Rublev.” As we view his writing, and the writings of others in icons throughout the Church, let us always give thanks for the gift of individuals with a wonderful talent to open the heavens for us. ~Fr. Dan

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Manteo and Virginia Dare (Aug 17)

Remembering our story

 

Baptism of Virginia Dare

In the late sixteenth century, Sir Walter Raleigh established three colonies along the northeastern coast of what is now the state of North Carolina. In July 1587, the third and final settlement, consisting of 120 men, women, and children under the leadership of John White, landed on Roanoke Island, near the present-day community of Nags Head.

With the colonists was Manteo, a Native American of the Algonquian nation and resident of Croatoan who had traveled to London in an earlier expedition to become a liaison between the English and the Native Americans. On August 13, 1587, Manteo was baptized, the first recorded baptism of the Church of England in the American colonies and the first recorded baptism of a Native American person in the Church of England. Read more

Holy Women, Holy Men

The Collect for the Commemoration

O God, you have created every human being in your image and each one is precious in your sight: Grant that in remembering the baptisms of Manteo and Virginia Dare, we may grow in honoring your gift of diversity in human life; become stronger in living out our baptismal vow to respect the dignity of every human being; and bring into the fellowship of the risen Christ those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As God answers our prayer may we well and truly “become stronger in living out our baptismal vow to respect the dignity of every human life.” ~Fr. Dan

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Collect: John Keble, Priest, 1866 (Mar 29)

Pursuing our God-given work with integrity and courage.

 

John Keble

New ev’ry morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove:
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power and thought.

These familiar words of John Keble are from his cycle of poems entitled The Christian Year (1827), which he wrote to restore among Anglicans a deep feeling for the Church Year. The work went through ninety-five editions, but this was not the fame he sought: his consuming desire was to be a faithful pastor, who finds his fulfillment in daily services, confirmation classes, visits to village schools, and a voluminous correspondence with those seeking spiritual counsel.

Keble, born in 1792, received his early education in his father’s vicarage. At fourteen, he won a scholarship to Oxford and graduated in 1811 with highest honors. He served the University in several capacities, including ten years as Professor of Poetry. After ordination in 1816 he had a series of rural curacies, and finally settled in 1836 into a thirty-year pastorate at the village of Hursley, near Winchester.  Read more

Holy Women, Holy Men

The Collect for the Commemoration

Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know your presence and obey your will; that, following the example of your servant John Keble, we may accomplish with integrity and courage what you give us to do, and endure what you give us to bear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Among the many thanksgiving I commonly offer is that God sets challenges before me that expands mind and heart and spirit. Pray with me that, with God’s help, you and I may truly accomplish—with integrity and courage—the work God has given us to do.  ~Fr. Dan

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Collect: Gregory the Illuminator, Bishop and Missionary of Armenia, c. 332 (Mar 23)

May we, in our generation, show forth the praise of God.

gregory-illuminotor

Armenia was the first nation-state to become officially Christian, and this set a precedent for the adoption of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine. As a buffer state between the more powerful empires of Rome and Persia, Armenia endured many shifts of policy, as first one and then the other empire took it “under protection.”

The accounts of Gregory, known as the Illuminator and as Apostle of the Armenians, are a mixture of legend and fact. He was born about 257. After his father assassinated the Persian King Chosroes I, the infant boy was rescued and taken to Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he was brought up as a Christian.  Read more

Holy Women, Holy Men

The Collect for the Commemoration

Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Gregory the Illuminator to be a light in the world, and to preach the Gospel to the people of Armenia: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Do you hear what we’re asking? “Shine…in our hearts…you who have called us out of darkness into your marvelous light,” is our intercessory prayer. Illuminate us, so that “in our generation we may show forth your praise,” we continue. May it be so, I pray. ~Fr. Dan

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

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Collect: Patrick, Bishop and Missionary of Ireland, 461 (Mar 17)

May we come at last to the light of everlasting life.

 

St. Patrick Icon

Patrick was born into a Christian family somewhere on the northwest coast of Britain in about 390. His grandfather had been a Christian priest and his father, Calpornius, a deacon. Calpornius was an important official in the late Roman imperial government of Britain. It was not unusual in this post-Constantinian period for such state officials to be in holy orders. When Patrick was about sixteen, he was captured by a band of Irish slave-raiders. He was carried off to Ireland and forced to serve as a shepherd. When he was about twenty-one, he escaped and returned to Britain, where he was educated as a Christian. He tells us that he took holy orders as both presbyter and bishop, although no particular see is known as his at this time. A vision then called him to return to Ireland. This he did about the year 431.

Tradition holds that Patrick landed not far from the place of his earlier captivity, near what is now known as Downpatrick (a “down” or “dun” is a fortified hill, the stronghold of a local Irish king). He then began a remarkable process of missionary conversion throughout the country that continued until his death, probably in 461.

Read more

Holy Women, Holy Men

The Collect for the Commemoration

Almighty God, in your providence you chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

May we respond to God’s answer of our prayer and walk as children of the light.  ~Fr. Dan

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Collect: John and Charles Wesley, Priests, 1791, 1788 (Mar 3)

“I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation….”

 

John and Charles Wesley

John was the fifteenth, and Charles the eighteenth, child of Samuel Wesley, Rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire. John was born June 17, 1703, and Charles, December 18, 1707.

The lives and fortunes of the brothers were closely intertwined. As founders and leaders of the “Methodist” or evangelical revival in eighteenth-century England, their continuing influence redounds throughout the world and is felt in many Churches.

Although their theological writings and sermons are still widely appreciated, it is through their hymns—especially those of Charles, who wrote over six thousand of them—that their religious experience, and their Christian faith and life, continue to affect the hearts of many.

Read more

Holy Women, Holy Men

The Collect for the Commemoration

Lord God, you inspired your servants John and Charles Wesley with burning zeal for the sanctification of souls, and endowed them with eloquence in speech and song: Kindle in your Church, we entreat you, such fervor, that those whose faith has cooled may be warmed, and those who have not known Christ may turn to him and be saved; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Collect used in worship can be both a prayer of intercession and petition. In this Collect we are clearly praying for others (“Kindle in your Church”), it is a prayer of intercession. However, you and I are members of this Church, so we are praying for ourselves, it can be a prayer of petition. Recognizing this as a prayer for the whole church, I find it useful (almost always) to focus on the Collect as a prayer of petition. Here, I am asking this: “Kindle in me—a member of your Church, Lord God—such fervor, that those whose faith has cooled may be warmed, and those who have not known Christ may turn to him and be saved.” As I join other Church members in this prayer and this mission, I believe God will be glorified. And you? ~Fr. Dan

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Image: Holy Women, Holy Men