Evening Prayer Tuesday, 16 March 2021

Ashes to Ashes
By Tias Little

I am on my back, now
At the end of a long and circuitous march
Down hallways, into rooms and kitchens.
I’m done building, raising up, tearing down
I’m done trying to get from A to B
No straight lines, geometry or form
The architecture of me vanished.

It’s difficult to explain
And the words I form feel flimsy
Like the skeletal wings of the moth
Found today between anatomy books
on the top shelf in my library.

As it is said in the book of Common Prayer
“we therefore commit this body to the ground,
Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”
These bones, flesh and sinews
Engravings in the loam.

The wind drops and a sudden stillness enters the room
I can’t see, smell, touch or hear.
But they are near, like the deer on the edge of the field at dusk,
I feel their silent bidding for me to follow
Into the black night, through the thicket of stars–
Via lactea, the milky way—
To join the flying atoms—
Particles of prana—
That have danced since the beginning of time.

Good evening and welcome to Evening Prayer

That this evening may be holy, good and peaceful,
let us pray with one heart and mind.

Silence is kept.

As our evening prayer rises before you, O God,
so may your mercy come down upon us
to cleanse our hearts
and set us free to sing your praise
now and for ever.
Amen

Breathe in
Breathe out
Be still…

Come, O Spirit of God,
and make within us your dwelling place and home.
May our darkness be dispelled by your light,
and our troubles calmed by your peace;
may all evil be redeemed by your love,
all pain transformed through the suffering of Christ,
and all dying glorified in his risen life.
Amen.

Presence

God is with me, but more, God is within me.
Let me dwell for a moment on God’s life-giving presence
in my body, in my mind, in my heart,
as I am here, right now.

Freedom

Lord, too often I think I am the one in control of my life.
Help me to see that I am powerless over so much.
I ask for the grace to be able to hand over my life to you
And experience the joy of that freedom.

Consciousness

Knowing that God loves me unconditionally,
I look honestly over the last day, its events and my feelings.
Do I have something to be grateful for? Then I give thanks.
Is there something I am sorry for? Then I ask forgiveness.

THE WORD OF GOD

Psalm 127:1

Unless the Lord builds the house,
    the builders labour in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the guards stand watch in vain.

Isaiah 28:9-11

‘Who is it he is trying to teach?
    To whom is he explaining his message?
To children weaned from their milk,
    to those just taken from the breast?
For it is:
    do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there.’

1 Corinthians 3:1-2

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly – mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

WORDS OF WISDOM

Religion, at its best, helps people to bring this foundational divine love into ever-increasing consciousness. In other words, it’s more about waking up than about cleaning up. Early-stage religion tends to focus on cleaning up, which is to say, determining who meets the requirements for moral behavior and religious belief.

At this point, at least in the United States, it appears that our cultural meaning has pretty much shrunk down to this: It is all about winning. Then, once we win, it becomes all about consuming. I can discern no other underlying philosophy in the practical order of American life today. Of itself, such a worldview cannot feed the soul very well or very long, much less provide meaning and encouragement, or engender love or community.

For insight into a more life-giving worldview, we can look to scripture and wise saints such as Julian of Norwich (1342–1416), who wrote that “Love is our Lord’s meaning.”  After years of counseling both religious and nonreligious people, it seems to me that most humans need a love object (which will hopefully become a mutual subject!) to keep themselves both sane and happy. That love object becomes our “North Star,” serving as our moral compass and our reason to keep putting one foot in front of the other in a happy and hopeful way. All of us need someone or something, or an animal (did anyone ever tell you that our English word animal comes from anima, the Latin for soul?) to connect our hearts with our heads. Love grounds us by creating focus, direction, motivation, even joy—and if we don’t find these things in love, we usually will try to find them in hate. We can certainly see the consequences of this unmet need for love in our society today!

In some ways, the object of our affection is arbitrary. It can begin as a love of golf, a clean house, your cat, or a desire to cultivate a certain reputation for yourself. Granted, the largeness of the object will eventually determine the largeness of the love, but God will use anything to get us started, focused, and flowing. Only a very few actually start this journey with God as the object. That is fully to be expected. God is not in competition with reality, but in full cooperation with it. All human loves, passions, and preoccupations can prime the pump, and only in time do most of us discover the first and final Source of those loves. God is clearly humble and does not seem to care who or what gets the credit. Whatever elicits the flow for you—in that moment and encounter, that thing is God for you! I do not say that without theological foundation, because my Trinitarian faith says that God is Relationship Itself. The names of the three “persons” of the Trinity are not as important as the relationship between them. That’s where all the power is—in the “in between”! 

Fr. Richard Rohr

https://cac.org/love-is-life-giving-2021-03-16/
Copyright © 2021 by CAC. Used by permission of CAC. All rights reserved worldwide.

PRAYERS AND INTERCESSIONS

We pray for the world…

Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

We pray for the universal church of Christ…

Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

We pray for one another and all those known to us…

Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer

As our Saviour taught us, so we pray

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.

Final Prayer

Abide with us, Lord, for it is evening,
and day is drawing to a close.
Abide with us and with
your whole Church,
in the evening of the day,
in the evening of life,
in the evening of the world;
abide with us and with all
your faithful ones, O Lord,
in time and in eternity.
Amen.

THE BLESSING

Keep us, good Lord,
under the shadow of your mercy.
Sustain and support the anxious,
be with those who care for the sick,
and lift up all who are brought low;
that we may find comfort
knowing that nothing can separate us from your love

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Thank you for join us. Goodnight and God bless.

Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga