Evening Prayer Monday, 19 April 2021

Mother Earth’s Gifts
By Kelly Roper

Mother Earth gives her gifts for all to share,
She gives them freely, yet she’s still aware
That things are changing, perhaps for the worse.
How much more can she give if our future is cursed?

It’s way past time to put Mother Earth first,
To clean up the water before we all thirst,
To clean up the air before our lungs sicken,
To renew the soil and feel it quicken.

How long until the point of no return?
How much longer until we all finally learn,
That to this task we all must rise.
And stop abusing Mother Earth before she dies.

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
The more we call on God
the more we can feel God’s presence.
Day by day we are drawn closer
to the loving heart of God.

Freedom
Everything has the potential to draw forth
from me a fuller love and life.
Yet my desires are often fixed, caught,
on illusions of fulfillment.
I ask that God, through my freedom
may orchestrate my desires
in a vibrant loving melody rich in harmony.

Consciousness
How am I really feeling?
Lighthearted? Heavy-hearted?
I may be very much at peace, happy to be here.
Equally, I may be frustrated, worried or angry.
I acknowledge how I really am.
It is the real me that the Lord loves.

THE WORD OF GOD

John 3:31-36

e one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

WORDS OF WISDOM

As I was preparing for The Shape of God conference on the Trinity in 2004, I discovered the teachings of Richard of St. Victor (1110–1173), a medieval philosopher and theologian. For years, people had been telling me, “Richard, read Richard!” So I finally did, and he gave me the powerful insight that the Trinity can be summed up as mutual friendship between three. Absolute Friendship! I really believe this is something we might be able to hold on to in our spiritual lives.

In essence, he said, for God to be good, God can be one (but we always have doubts about a lone monarch). For God to be loving, God has to be two, because love is always a relationship of giving and receiving. The real breakthrough comes when Richard of St. Victor says that for God to be joy-filled and happy, God has to be three.  Delight comes, he says, from two together enjoying and rejoicing in the same thing at the same time. It is like new parents loving their new child that they cannot stop admiring. The love then flows in an eternal circle instead of back and forth between two. Each of the three takes their part in revving the engine of desire and delight.

His theology places friendship right at the heart of God! Denis Edwards, another theologian I appreciate, describes the theology of Richard of St. Victor in this way:

Richard [of St. Victor] sees the self-transcending love of friendship as the high point of human life and argues that such friendship must be found in God. . . . Real friendship is love which goes from the self to the other. . . . Richard’s insight into friendship leads him to suggest that real love does not remain with the two but wants to share love with another. For full love we look for one who can share our love for the beloved. Richard sees the friendship in the Trinity as ecstatically breaking out beyond the two to include a third. . . . There is no sense in which this common [third] friend is loved any less than the other two. In the love of the divine Persons, Richard sees supreme love flowing equally in all directions.

When I read Richard of St. Victor, it reminded me of a dilemma I faced when I first started becoming rather well-known. (Forgive me if that sounds arrogant!) There were a lot of people who wanted to get close to me and be my friend. I asked myself, how do I allow all these would-be friends? I realized that the people I really loved with great abandon and freedom were not just people who loved me, but people who also loved what I loved.

Optimally, both parents fall in love with the challenge and joy that is their baby. The child that they’re in love with holds the couple together in a kind of ecstatic and willing-to-serve excitement. Love is no effort then; it flows in each new moment between the One who agrees to start the Flow, the Second who receives and reciprocates the Flow, and the Third who becomes the beneficiary and the Flow Itself. And they are constantly changing places! Think about that for a few hours. You will not want to live anywhere else.

Fr. Richard Rohr

https://cac.org/god-as-friendship-2021-04-16/
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.

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

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
Amen

THANK YOU FOR JOIN US!

Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga