Morning Prayers Tuesday, 25 August 2020

No Nonsense 

By Charlie Smith 

split off for a sec
I thought I might say something
truthful
but couldn’t come up with it
and lingered in the rosy twilight
unpacking an old suitcase
I found under the stairs

sometimes I stay as still
as possible and tell myself
a limitless vista’s
opening up when it’s not

the rain pounded madly on the roof

afterwards we
sat on the porch shelling
peas and quoting scripture

the birds in the melaleuca trees
seemed tired

the sky
reopened like a grocery store
on a desert road

I came
away from myself
unstuck

and a sort of translucent
orderliness
like a small herd of gazelles
entered my mind

© Charlie Smith 2020

Good morning and welcome to Morning Prayer

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

Silence is kept. 

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;
now and for ever.
Amen. 

Breathe in

Breathe out

Be still…

I arise today,
embraced in the arms
of God the Father,
empowered by the strength
of God the Spirit,
immersed in the love
of God the Son.
I arise today
in the company
of the Trinity,
Father, Spirit and Son.
I arise today

Amen  

Presence

“Be still and know that I am God”
Lord, may your spirit guide me
to seek Your Loving presence
more and more. For it is there
I find rest and refreshment from
this busy world.

Freedom

Lord, you granted me the great gift of freedom.
In these times, O Lord, grant that I may be free
from any form of racism or intolerance.
Remind me, Lord, that we are all equal
in your loving eyes

Consciousness

As I spend this time with you, Lord,
I am aware of how blessed I truly am.
I think of the love and laughter in my life,
And I feel grateful.

The Word of God

Matthew 23:23-26 

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected
the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.
It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate,
but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may become clean.”

WORDS OF WISDOM

Everyone gets tired of critique after a while. We cannot build on exclusively negative or critical energy. We can only build on life and what we are for, not what we are against. Negativity keeps us in a state of victimhood and/or a state of anger. Mere critique and analysis are not salvation; they are not liberation, nor are they spacious. They are not wonderful at all. We only become enlightened as the ego dies to its pretences, and we begin to be led by soul and Spirit. That dying to ourselves is something we are led through by the grace of God. When we move into the Larger Realm of Reorder, we will weep over our sins, as we recognize that we are everything that we hate and attack in other people. Then we begin to live the great mystery of compassion.

There is no nonstop flight from Order to Reorder, or from Disorder to Reorder. We must dip back into what was good, helpful, and also limited about most initial presentations of “order” and even the tragedies of “disorder.” Otherwise we spend too much of our lives rebelling and reacting. I’m not sure why God created the world that way, but I have to trust the universal myths and stories. Between the beginning and the end, the Great Stories inevitably reveal a conflict, a contradiction, a confusion, a fly in the ointment of our self-created paradise. This sets the drama in motion and gives it momentum and humility. Everybody, of course, initially shoots for “happiness,” but most books I have ever read seem to be some version of how suffering refined, taught, and formed people.

Maintaining our initial order is not of itself happiness. We must expect and wait for a “second naïveté,” which is given more than it is created or engineered by us. Happiness is the spiritual outcome and result of full growth and maturity, and this is why I am calling it “reorder” (much more about that next week). Generally, we must be taken to happiness—we cannot find our way there by willpower or cleverness. Yet we all try—usually heading in the wrong direction! We seem insistent on not recognizing this universal pattern of growth and change. It seems that each of us has to learn on our own, with much kicking and screaming, what is well hidden but also in plain sight.

Fr Richard Rohr 

PRAYERS & 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. 

May God the Father
prepare your journey,
Jesus the Son
guide your footsteps,
The Spirit of Life
strengthen your body,

The Three in One
watch over you,
on every road
that you may follow.

Amen  

BLESSING

May your day be blessed
by moments of quietness,
light in your darkness,
strength in your weakness,
grace in your meekness,
joy in your gladness,
peace in your stillness.
May your day be blessed

AMEN  

Thank you for join us…have a wonderful day!

Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga