Daily Prayers Monday, 28 March 2022

by Ian Trimnell · 28 March 2022

BEES
by Norman Rowland Gale

You voluble,
Velvety
Vehement fellows
That play on your
Flying and
Musical cellos,
All goldenly
Girdled you
Serenade clover,
Each artist in
Bass but a
Bibulous rover!

You passionate,
Powdery
Pastoral bandits,
Who gave you your
Roaming and
Rollicking mandates?
Come out of my
Foxglove; come
Out of my roses
You bees with the
Plushy and
Plausible noses!

Welcome to Prayers for the Day.

We light a candle…

Lord, may this candle be a light for you to enlighten me in my decisions,
And may it be a fire for you to purify me from all pride and selfishness.
May it be a flame for you to build warmth into my heart towards my family,
my neighbours and all those who meet me.
In leaving this candle, I wish to give you something of myself.
Help me to continue this prayer into everything I do this day.
Amen.

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.

Presence
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Lord, Your words lead us to the
calmness and greatness of Your Presence.

Freedom
Lord grant me the grace
to have freedom of the spirit.
Cleanse my heart and soul
so I may live joyously in your love.

Consciousness
We all need to take time out from our daily chores.
We know that our bodies need a rest.
When we come into your presence, Lord,
our hearts and minds are refreshed, our spirits lifted.

THE WORD OF GOD

Psalm 5:11-12
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them,so that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover them with favour as with a shield.
Isaiah 43:10-11
You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no saviour.
Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

WORDS OF WISDOM

Fear unites the disparate parts of our false selves very quickly. The ego moves forward by contraction, self-protection, and refusal, by saying no. Contraction gives us focus, purpose, direction, superiority, and a strange kind of security. It takes our aimless anxiety, covers it up, and tries to turn it into purposefulness and urgency, which results in a kind of drivenness. But this drive is not peaceful or happy. It is filled with fear and locates all its problems as “out there,” never “in here.”

The soul or the True Self does not proceed by contraction but by expansion. It moves forward, not by exclusion, but by inclusion. It sees things deeply and broadly not by saying no but by saying yes, at least on some level, to whatever comes its way. Can you distinguish between those two very different movements within yourself?

Fear and contraction allow us to eliminate other people, write them off, exclude them, and somehow expel them, at least in our minds. This immediately gives us a sense of being in control and having a secure set of boundaries—even holy boundaries. But people who are controlling are usually afraid of losing something. If we go deeper into ourselves, we will see that there is both a rebel and a dictator in all of us, two different ends of the same spectrum. It is almost always fear that justifies our knee-jerk rebellion or our need to dominate—a fear that is hardly ever recognized as such because we are acting out and trying to control the situation.

Author Gareth Higgins describes moving through the “no” of fear to the “yes” of love:

Look beneath your fear and you will discover what it is you really care about. What you wish to protect: people, places, things, hopes, dreams. Aggression, shame, and disconnection—even as attempts at making a better life for me or a better world for all of us—don’t work. But as we expand our circle of caring to include all people, all places, all of creation, we discover that our fears are shared and that all our cares come from the same place. Come to understand your fear, and you may find that we’re all just trying to figure out how to love.

Father Richard continues:

Unless there is someone to hold and accompany us on these inner journeys, much of humanity cannot go very deep inside. If only we knew Who we would meet there, and could say, with St. Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510), “My deepest me is God!” Without such accompaniment, most of us will stay on the surface of our own lives, where small-spiritedness keeps us from being bothered by others. Yet with divine accompaniment, we will literally “find our souls” and the One who lovingly dwells there.

Fr Richard Rohr

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord our God, from whom great promises are given for all humankind and especially for your people, we gather in your presence. We rejoice before you, for your promise is sure and your works will be revealed to the glory of your name. Grant us steadfast faith in the grace of Jesus Christ. Grant us faith to hold firm, and in spite of all evil to trust that you are ruling and will set everything right. Lord our God, our Father, we cry to you. As the deer pants for refreshing water, so in our time our souls cry out to you, “Our Father in heaven, may your name be honoured. May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as in heaven.”
Amen.

IMAGE FOR TODAY

Drawing of Odesa’s Opera and Ballet theatre by George Butler

By George Butler
As millions fled the conflict in Ukraine, the reportage illustrator felt compelled to travel there.
The Opera and Ballet theatre is easily the most beautiful building in Odesa, now surrounded by sandbags and these big black tank hedgehogs that are made by volunteers in factories around the city. They’re cut out of old railway line and put all over the streets and it is impossible for tanks to move through them. Painted or welded on to all of them is the phrase: ‘Russian warship, go f….k yourself.’ That’s become a real slogan. You see it everywhere.’

THE BLESSING

May God the provider of green pastures and
quiet waters be the peace in our hearts today
May Jesus our guide on mountain top and valley
deep be the hope in our hearts today
May the Spirit of truth and knowledge
comforter and friend be the strength in our hearts today
Amen

Thank you for join us. Have a wonderful day

Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga