Galilee
Saint
Mary's
The Parish Church of Prittlewell
Galilee
A small space and a little time for Private Prayer
There is really nothing mysterious about prayer.
Prayer is talking to God, and wanting to do this is a gift to you from Him. You can say anything to Him, scream and shout even. He knows if you want to so you may as well do it, because truth is what He wants from you. What will the conversation be about? Well, ACTS stands for the four bits that make up prayer, not necessarily all at once. In time it will begin to feel natural to use each of them sometimes:
A equals “Adoration”. So how do we adore God? It’s a start to consider that He loves us with a love that never wavers, no matter what we do, or don’t do. Then let the awe and wonder of this wash over you and reach back to God.
C stands for “Confession”, or more properly “Contrition”. God knows how the wrongs that we do hurt us, and other people. In confession we tell Him nothing He does not know already; instead we acknowledge our wrongdoing to Him and to ourselves. But confession alone is not enough. We need to be sorry about it – to repent – if we crave God’s forgiveness. “Contrition” means confessing and being sorry.
T is “Thanksgiving”. How much do you have to be thankful for? When times are tough it’s tempting to say “not much”, but make a list. Put on it all the things and people, past and present, you would not lose without some pain. And then give thanks for them.
S is for “Supplication”, which means ‘asking for’ but that wouldn’t fit in the word ACTS! Perhaps it seems wrong to ask God for things? He certainly knows what each of us wants and needs, but it seems He wants us to ask. Jesus said, “What do you want me to do for you?” So ask anything, and be confident God’s response will be the best for you.
The Lord's Prayer follows. Taught to us by Jesus it is a model of all prayer ought to be: adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and asking for what we need - 'Give us this day our daily bread'. It is prayed constantly all round the world, so you will be in good company as you pray it.
The Lord's
Prayer:
Our Father who
art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive them that trespass against us;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen
Saint Augustine's Evening Prayer:
Watch thou, dear
Lord,
with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight,
and give thine angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend thy sick ones, Lord Christ.
Rest thy weary ones.
Bless thy dying ones.
Soothe thy suffering ones.
Pity thine afflicted ones.
Shield thy joyous ones.
And all, for thy love's sake.
Amen.
Mother Teresa's
Prayer:
O God, we pray
for all those in our world who are suffering from injustice;
For those who are discriminated against because of their race, colour or
religion;
For those imprisoned for working for the relief of oppression;
For those who are hounded for speaking the inconvenient truth:
For those tempted to violence as a cry against overwhelming hardship;
For those deprived of reasonable health and education;
For those suffering from hunger and famine;
For those too weak to help themselves and who have no one else to help them:
For the unemployed who cry out for work but do not find it.
We pray for anyone of our acquaintance who is personally affected by injustice.
Forgive us, Lord, if we unwittingly share in the conditions
or in a system that perpetuates injustice.
Show us how we can serve your children and make your love practical by washing
their feet.
Thomas Merton's
Prayer:
My Lord God, I
have no idea where I am going
I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following
your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you
and I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road
although I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Traditional Children's Bedtime Prayer:
Bless me Lord,
this night I pray,
Keep me safe till dawn of day.
Bless my mother and my father,
Bless my sister and my brother.
Bless each little girl and boy,
Bless them all for heavenly joy.
Amen.
Traditional Irish Blessing:
May there
always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine upon your window pane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near to you and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
LENT QUIET DAY
For the Lent Quiet Day (13 Feb 2010) Father Shaun chose to talk about Holy Listening in three addresses as ‘listening to others’, ‘listening to God’ and ‘listening to ourselves’. He began with listening to others and the difference between listening and ‘hearing’. The latter takes account of the whole person being listened to – the ‘what’ we hear, as opposed to listening which is ‘how’ we ‘hear’. Good listening involves laying aside our prejudices and pre-conceived ideas and offering the hospitality of a safe and secure space where the other can, perhaps, begin to change and grow. Good listening involves patience and care, and listening to what the other does not say, as well as what he/she does say. Fr Shaun quoted the well known poem ‘Not waving but drowning’, by Stevie Smith, and also these anonymous words:
When I ask you to listen to me
And you start giving me advice
You have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
And you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way
You are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
And you feel you have to do something to solve my problems
You have failed me, strange as that may seem.
When you do something for me
That I can and need to do for myself,
You contribute to my fear and weakness.
So, please listen and just hear me, and
If you want to talk, wait a minute
And I will listen to you.
(Anon)
Fr Shaun said it must be accepted that very often the listener cannot do anything about what is heard but ‘Harden not your hearts’ (Hebrews 3, 15) and we should not be afraid to listen to peoples’ troubles, but pass them on to God. Listeners are acting as God’s channel.
‘The gift of being a good listener, a gift which requires constant practice, is perhaps the most healing gift anyone can possess, for it allows the other to be – enfolds them in a safe place, does not judge or advise them, accepts them as they are without desiring to change them, and communicates support at a level deeper than words.’ Gerard Hughes SJ
In Acts 9: 10 – 17 Ananias is told by God to go and meet Saul. Ananias is justifiably unsure if he has heard right since Saul has been persecuting the followers of Jesus, and has come to Damascus to continue doing this. But God says to do what he says and Ananias does. He did not reject Saul, who became Paul. Fr Shaun said it is right to remember that there may only ever be one moment in a person’s life that is on offer to you to listen to them and the Christian thing to do is to listen and not reject them.
Next came listening to God. This is difficult, but we make it more so if we are afraid of what God might say. The need is to create your own space and stillness to hear God’s voice, and to trust Him! Fr Shaun quoted Ananias in this context also, and the boy Samuel (1 Samuel 3) “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Fr Shaun told us solitude is not emptiness and solitude is not loneliness. Inner solitude and silence help set us free from loneliness and fear. While loneliness is inner emptiness Jesus calls us to inner solitude, which is inner fulfilment. Inner solitude and silence allow us to be with others meaningfully – allow us to be alone in a safe way. Jesus was often alone, particularly in times of great stress, the better to hear God speak. Matt 26:36-46 (Gethsemane)
‘ Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.
(…) Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship
without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks
solitude without fellowship perishes is the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation
and despair.’
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together)
We may always be too busy to hear the Spirit talk to us. So make time and space to listen to God and maybe he will talk through our busyness. Allow God to speak to you – through events, creation, circumstances, other people. ‘Safety’ can be the wrong place to be to hear God because we think we know what is ‘going on’. It’s when we move from a safe, because known, area that we grow – perceived safety is dangerous! A certain priest never says ‘take care’ on parting, but ‘take risks’.
Allow God to speak to you through the Bible. Pick a piece that appeals to you and read it again and again – maybe learn it – and carry it with you through the day. Fr Shaun said this was a thoroughly Benedictine approach to the Bible.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you”, declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29: 11-13
We listen to God – God listens to us. It is astounding that he does, but he does – even though there are maybe things we are ashamed to say to him, but God has said he will listen to us. What might captivity mean for us? – the world, sin and the devil? What might it mean to be brought back, or out, of this captivity? Fr Shaun explained that Scripture reading, from any part of the Bible, can be about present things.
O God you are my God. Earnestly do I seek you. My
soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there
is no water.
Psalm 63
Right through the Bible is the thread that God talks to people who are willing to listen, but sinfulness stops us listening to God. The only remedy is confession and repentance; private and informal, in church, or fully sacramental to a priest.
Pinpoint something you feel would be good to be got rid of. Work on that one thing, however small it is, and start with that. Fr Shaun spoke of the Prodigal Son, and that God is always waiting for us to come to him (‘I stand at the door and knock’) even when we ignore or reject him – always waiting to welcome us home, and to talk to us.
The last part was done in the Chapel at Pleshey, in the presence of the reserved sacrament. Fr Shaun reminded us that we look at God AND God looks at us. This was ‘listening to yourself’, which is partly about getting the balance right between ordinary life and spirituality. This balance is important and needs to be part of the aim of our listening. There is much value in taking stock of ourselves, particularly in Lent.
A folk tale tells of two men who chopped wood for a whole day. One chopped constantly without a break. The second rested for ten minutes every hour. At the end of the day it was the second man who had chopped the most wood. Puzzled by this the first man asked his colleague how this could be. “It’s simple,” said the second man. “Whenever I rested, I sharpened my axe.”
To sharpen our spiritual sense we need to relax, do other things. Many say Grace before food, but to say it before all pleasures is to grow in awareness that all things come from God.
Fr Shaun read us extracts from Matthew Ch6, - everyone who asks receives and everyone who seeks finds – show me my nature in the deeps of my being (to paraphrase). The vicar said we need to listen to the three parts of ourselves, spirit, soul and body to try and see how we really are (which we do not usually see) and how we really should be. We need to become more fully ‘real’. This is a life-long process, involving listening to God, to others and to ourselves. But we may not hear what God is saying because of our misconceptions, others may not want to tell us what they see, and we may not be honest with ourselves. It takes courage to be honest with ourselves.
We need to be real (as in ordinary life) and spiritual at the same time, because that is what God intends us to be - fully integrated. We are loved in the bodies we have, as much as in our minds and souls. In Lent it is good to see ourselves as God and others see us, and to remember that in all things Christ deferred to his Father, and so must we.
This was a well-attended day at Pleshey – cold and tending to snow outside but warm and peaceful inside. Father Shaun led us gently through a complex series of images and ideas and there is only a synopsis here. Those who went have been provided with plenty of food for thought and are grateful to him for giving it to us.
See 'Links' page for link to 'World Prayers'
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