Evening Prayer Monday, 12 April 2021
This Breathless Earth
By Malcolm Guite
We bolted every door but even so
We couldn’t catch our breath for very fear:
Fear of their knocking at the gate below,
Fear that they’d find and kill us even here.
Though Mary’s tale had quickened all our hearts
Each fleeting hope just deepens your despair:
The panic grips again, the gasping starts,
The drowning, and the coming up for air.
Then suddenly, a different atmosphere,
A clarity of light, a strange release,
And, all unlooked for, Christ himself was there
Love in his eyes and on his lips, our peace.
So now we breathe again, sent forth, forgiven,
To bring this breathless earth a breath of heaven.
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.
Presence
I slow myself down for a moment,
and try to realise that God is present.
To me. Here and now. He is in present in what I do,
in the people that I meet, and the situations I find myself in daily.
How can I make this reality real for myself?
Freedom
Thank you God for my freedom
May I use this gift to do what I can
for those who are oppressed or burdened.
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
1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives for ever.
WORDS OF WISDOM
The ancients viewed friendship as the crown of life, the fulfillment of all that is most distinctively human. Moderns all too often assess its value primarily in terms of its usefulness for achieving material ends (friends as business contacts) or minimizing boredom and loneliness (friends as people to kill time with). . . .
Most people also have colleagues with whom they work or associates with whom they spend regular time.
But this still falls short of the ideals of friendship. The coin of friendship has been continuously devalued by being applied to these lesser forms of relationship. Relationships between acquaintances or associates involve little of the intimacy, trust, commitment and loyalty of real friendships. Friendships may grow out of these more casual relationships but are not the same. Unfortunately, true friendships are also much more rare.
Friendship is one of God’s special gifts to humans. Remarkably, friendship is one of the terms God uses to describe the relationship [God] desires with us. Friendship is therefore no ordinary relationship.
In contrast to the transactional relationships we often settle for today, the twelfth-century Cistercian monk Aelred of Rievaulx (1110–1167) viewed friendship with other people as a way to deepen our friendship with God in Christ. In his classic work Spiritual Friendship, he writes:
How happy, how carefree, how joyful you are if you have a friend with whom you may talk as freely as with yourself, to whom you neither fear to confess any fault nor blush at revealing any spiritual progress, to whom you may entrust all the secrets of your heart and confide all your plans. And what is more delightful than so to unite spirit to spirit and so to make one out of twothat there is neither fear of boasting nor dread of suspicion? A friend’s correction does not cause pain, and a friend’s praise is not considered flattery.
The wise man says, “a friend is medicine for life.” What a striking metaphor! No remedy is more powerful, effective, and distinctive in everything that fills this life than to have someone to share your every loss with compassion and your every gain with congratulation. Hence shoulder to shoulder, according to Paul, friends carry each other’s burdens [Galatians 6:2]. . . .
Indeed such great honor, remembrance, praise, and wishes are attached to friends that their lives are considered worthy of praise and their deaths precious. One truth surpasses all these: close to perfection is that level of friendship that consists in the love and knowledge of God, when one who is the friend of another becomes the friend of God, according to the verse of our Savior in the Gospel: “I shall no longer call you servants but friends” [John 15:15].
Fr. Richard Rohr
Copyright © 2021 by CAC. Used by permission of CAC. All rights reserved worldwide.
https://cac.org/sacred-relationship-2021-04-12/
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.
Silence….
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.
Amen
THE BLESSINGS
Be people of hope. Let hope live in your heart and share
the hope of Christ with all you meet.
Share hope by noticing someone else’s humanity.
Share hope by listening to someone’s story.
Share hope by praying for our world.
In this Advent season, we need to see,
feel, and share hope.
As you go out into the wonder of God’s creations,
share hope with those you meet.
Amen.
THANK YOU FOR JOIN US!
Thank you for join us. Goodnight and God bless…
Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga
