Evening Prayer for Monday, 27 July 2020

Memories

By Jane Kim

Memories in my life fade away
As I replace them with others.
They are forgotten and stored away.
Although the memories are pushed to the side,
They are safe so I may remember them in the future.
Our mind is like a book;
It writes down important things and keeps them between the pages forever.
Maybe our whole album of memories:
Our first steps, first love, first grief, and others
Were meant to be there for us to never forget.

Good evening and welcome to evening prayer

The Lord almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end.

Amen.

Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth
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…

Presence

It is always nice to be in the presence of friends.
When I come into your presence, O Lord,
I know I am in the presence of my Creator.
You created me out of Love.
You even know the amount of hairs on my head.
Your presence, O Lord, is the greatest of all.

Freedom

Dear Lord, instil in my heart
the desire to know and love you more.
May I respond to your will for my life.

Consciousness

I exist in a web of relationships – links to nature, people, God.
I trace out these links, giving thanks for the life that flows through them.
Some links are twisted or broken: I may feel regret, anger, disappointment.
I pray for the gift of acceptance and forgiveness.

The Word of God

Psalm 107:35–37 

He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.
And there he lets the hungry live, and they establish a town to live in;
they sow fields, and plant vineyards, and get a fruitful yield.

Isaiah 40:3–5  

A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain
and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

Words of wisdom

Before you speak of peace, you must first have it in your heart. —Francis of Assisi

Generations of Christians seem to have forgotten Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence. We’ve relegated visions of a peaceful kingdom to a far distant heaven. We hardly believed Jesus could have meant for us to turn the other cheek here and now. It took Gandhi, a Hindu, to help us apply Jesus’ peace-making in very practical ways. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), drawing from Gandhi’s writings and example, brought nonviolence to the forefront of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

The nonviolence of Gandhi, like that of the civil rights activists, affirmed a unity of peaceful ends and means. Thomas Merton, reflecting on Gandhi’s nonviolence, wrote:

Non-violence was not simply a political tactic which was supremely useful and efficacious in liberating his people from foreign rule . . . the spirit of non-violence sprang from an inner realization of spiritual unity in himself. The whole Gandhian concept of non-violent action . . . is incomprehensible if it is thought to be a means of achieving unity rather than as the fruit of inner unity already achieved.

Training in nonviolence helps us admit that our secret inner attitudes are often cruel, attacking, judgmental, and harsh. The ego seems to find its energy precisely by having something to oppose, fix, or change. When the mind can judge something to be inferior, we feel superior. We must recognize our constant tendency toward negating reality, resisting it, opposing it, and attacking it on the level of our mind. This is the universal addiction.

Authentic spirituality is always first about you—about allowing your own heart and mind to be changed. It’s about getting your own who right. Who is it that is doing the perceiving? Is it your illusory, separate, false self; or is it your True Self, who you are in God?

Fr Richard Rohr

Prayers and intercessions

We pray for the world…

Lord in your mercy/ hear our prayers

We pray for the universal church of Christ…

Lord in your mercy/hear our prayers

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

Lord in your mercy/hear our prayers

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.

Be still..

Visit this place, O Lord, we pray,
and drive far from it the snares of the enemy;
may your holy angels dwell with us and guard us in peace,
and may your blessing be always upon us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

See that you are at peace among yourselves, my children, and love one another.

Follow the example of the wise and good and God will comfort you and help you, both in this world and in the world which is to come.

+ 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…by the grace of God tomorrow will be a better day…adios…

Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga