Episcopal News Service (ENS) posted “After presidential power shifts, Episcopalians ask: How should we pray” on January 23, 2017. It had the subtitle “Debating purpose, intention of praying for Donald Trump in church.” As internet posts go, this is a long post. It presents reasoned answers for both “yes” and “no.” What follows are a few quotes from the article. I encourage you to read the entire article here.
~Fr. Dan
As the new year approaches and many people think about new years resolutions, I would like to suggest one: reading written prayers.
I am not suggesting that one replace his whole prayer time with reading prayers or that he give up spontaneous praying in favor of reading prayers, but that he add to those disciplines the practice of reading prayers written by others. I suggest this resolution for the following reasons.
Written from an “evangelical perspective” the suggestion is relevant to all who wish to deepen their life of prayer in 2017. Read the entire post by Taylor Drummond on The Chorus in the Chaos Blog (Patheos).
I share a post that was among others on Religion News Service today. As I read the article I wondered if those with opinions moved beyond conversation/debate to action? It is a good question for me, and for you who read this. What happens after awareness? ~dan rondeau
From RNS: ‘Homeless Jesus’ provokes debate on what it means to be Christian | Religion News Service.
We have also brought attention to “Homeless Jesus” and the question persists: what will we do with this awareness? Our posts:
Typhoon Haiyan spread death and destruction when it reached land in the Philippines. At this time (Tuesday 11/12/13) the death toll continues to rise and pictures of the devastation give us a heart-wrenching look at the survivors and what is left of their homes, neighborhoods, and cities.
As I write, I know I cannot physically go and give aid. I believe that most (or all) of you reading this are in a similar place. Nonetheless, ‘love of neighbor’ calls us to action.
What that action will be is very dependent on our ability to empathize with those who have been hurt or harmed and to empathize with those who are able (maybe even required) to physically go and search for and minister to the hurt and homeless and hungry. Then, our empathy will call forth our response of donations to help both groups. Encircling us in this discernment is our prayer.
For whether we go or stay, whether we can give much or a little, we are called to pray. As one who has received grace upon grace through prayer I tell you that prayer and praying is more powerful a force—for the one who prays and the one being prayed for—than you can imagine.
Please join me in giving and praying for brothers and sisters young and old, in the Philippines. Join me, too, in praying for those who are able to be on the ground as an answer to prayer.
From the Church of England:
O loving Creator, bring healing and hope to those who, at this time, grieve, suffer pain, or who have been made homeless by the force of flood in Philippines.
We remember those who have died and we pray for those who mourn for them.
May we all be aware of Your compassion, O God, which calms our troubled hearts and shelters our anxious souls.
May we pray with humility with our troubled and struggling brothers and sisters on earth. May we dare to hope that through the generosity of the privileged, the destitute might glimpse hope, warmth and life again.
Through our Saviour Christ who lives with us, comforts us and soothes us. Amen.
… do you pray for that brother or sister
who’s in difficulty for confessing their faith?
That is the question Pope Francis asked of the crowd in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, September 25, 2013.
The Pope’s comments came in response to an attack on an Anglican Church in Peshawar, Pakistan that left 78 dead. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, also spoke of the courage, the willingness to forgive, and the ‘cry for justice’ arising from the ashes of the destruction. Listen to his comments on Radio 4’s World at One.
Well, do you pray for brothers and sisters you may never meet, but who are family to you?
As we considered the words of Jesus (Luke 14:25-33) on Sunday (9/8/13) about discipleship the discussion was lively. As our session concluded we each made a commitment to be more intentional about in following the Way of Jesus this week. And we prayed:
Give us the courage to follow the way of your cross, and to trust that though it confounds the logic of the world, your way interrupts the patterns of sin and death, both now and forever. Amen.
Claiborne, Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Enuma Okoro, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (p. 401). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Let us pray together in remembrance and thanksgiving and make our prayers of dedication to Peace heartfelt …
Today we share a post: ST JOSEPH’S ABBEY, SPENCER MA: Ascension Day.
It is a quick read to make you think on this mysterious and marvelous day.
Here is a different ‘listen’ to a favorite Psalm. Dedicated to his mother, Bobby McFerrin takes poetic license in this setting of Psalm 23. Click the link to discover more: The Lord is my shepherd.
Sister Joan Chittister is one of my favorite authors. Here is her “Easter Prayer.” You can find an index to all of her “Ideas in Passing” here. I encourage you to subscribe to her weekly email.
To say “I believe in Jesus Christ . . . who rose from the dead,” is to say I believe that the Resurrection goes on and on and on forever. Every time Jesus rises in our own hearts in new ways, the Resurrection happens again. Every time we see Jesus where we did not recognize him before—in the faces of the poor, in the love of the unloved, in the revelatory moments of life, Jesus rises anew. The real proof of the Resurrection lies not in the transformation of Jesus alone but in the transformation awaiting us who accept it.
To say, “I believe in Jesus Christ . . . who rose from the dead,” is to say something about myself at the same time. It says that I myself am ready to be transformed. Once the Christ-life rises in me, I rise to new life as well. “Christ is risen, we are risen,” we sing at Easter. But it has a great deal more to do with life than with death. If I know that Jesus has been transformed, then I am transformed myself, and as a result, everything around me.
Until we find ourselves with new hearts, more penetrating insights, fewer compulsions, less need for the transient, greater awareness of the spiritual pulse of life, resurrection has not really happened for us. Jesus has risen but we have not. Resurrection is change at the root of the soul. It marks a whole new way of being in life.
Jesus, help me to understand that in every life, something good fails, something great ends, something righteous is taken unjustly away, something looms like an abandonment by God. Give me the wisdom to know that You rose from the dead as a sign to us that every one of these “little deaths” is life become new all over again. Be with me in living Your Resurrection over and over again.
Joan Chittister in: Vision and Viewpoint e-newsletter dated 1 April 2013
The chimes are fairly shouting praises as they sound today. What do you hear?
Hear what the Spirit is saying 