Evening Prayer Wednesday, 14 October 2020
Your love comes to me
in the silence,
ordinary.
Like a child’s treasure
I turn it over
in the nook of my hand,
warming its smooth
heaviness.
A thought of You,
stony,
clearly defined,
drops as though
down a deep
well,
is lost
momentarily,
then turns up
a certainty in the heart.
Cathy Hutcheon ©
Good evening and welcome to Evening Prayers
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.
Breathe in
Breathe out
Be still…
When our faith is weak
you strengthen us,
when we lose our way
you rescue us,
when we fall into sin
you forgive us.
Gracious Father,
please remind us
as we forget,
that your love is
unconditional,
always moulding us
into what we could be,
always blessing us
that we might glorify you.
For love,
grace
and forgiveness,
we thank you.
Amen
Presence
At any time of the day or night we can call on Jesus.
He is always waiting, listening for our call.
What a wonderful blessing.
No phone needed, no e-mails, just a whisper.
Freedom
Lord, may I never take the gift of freedom for granted.
You gave me the great blessing of freedom of spirit.
Fill my spirit with Your peace and Your joy.
Consciousness
Where do I sense hope, encouragement, and growth areas in my life?
By looking back over the last few months,
I may be able to see which activities and occasions have produced rich fruit.
If I do notice such areas, I will determine to give those areas both
time and space in the future.
THE WORD OF GOD
Psalm 150
Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!
Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according
to his surpassing greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with clanging cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that breathes praise
the LORD! Praise the LORD!
WORDS OF WISDOM
The “flesh” is the second source of evil, deadness, or unconsciousness. It arises from the first, the “world” or system. Paul generally uses “flesh” as a negative term for anything purely individual, passing, partial, and thus untrustworthy, not for the body itself. This shows itself in our private crimes and sins, but personal sin is not the primary cause of malice as much as a result of deeper lies or illusions. Personal sin is committed rather freely because it is derived from and legitimated by underlying, unspoken agreements that certain evils are necessary for the common good.
However, to be honest, this leaves us very conflicted. We call war good and necessary, but murder bad. National or corporate pride is good, but personal vanity is bad. Lying and cover-ups are good to protect the whole (the institutional church, American self-interest, governments), but individuals should not tell lies. This is our foundational moral confusion which shows why we must not put all our focus on changing the world at the individual, “flesh” level.
When Paul talks about the third level or “devil,” he uses words like “powers,” “principalities,” and “thrones” (see Colossians 1:16). These are almost certainly his premodern words for what we would now call corporations, institutions, nation-states, and organizations that demand our full allegiance and thus become, in many ways, idolatrous—not just “too big to fail,” but even too big to be criticized. Suddenly, the medieval notion of devils comes very close to home.
When the systems of “the world” are able to operate as denied and disguised evil, they soon become the “spirits in the air” that do immense damage but are invisible and unaccountable. Therefore, “the devil” is those same corporate evils when they have risen to sanctified, romanticized, and idealized necessities that are saluted, glorified, and celebrated in big paychecks, golden parachutes, parades, songs, rewards for loyalty, flags, marches, medals, and monuments. That’s how disguised “the devil” is! We all join in on bended knee.
We must first convict evil in its organizational form—not in its adherents, who might be quite good and holy—but the glorified organization itself. Then we must consider nation-states, war economies, penal systems, the banking system, the pharmaceutical system, etc. They are all good and necessary, in and of themselves. But when we idolize them and refuse to hold them fully accountable—I am going to dare to say the unsayable—they usually become demonic in some form. We normally cannot see it until it is too late. Anything considered above criticism will soon become demonic. Remember that the first exorcism of a demon in Mark’s Gospel is found not in a brothel or bar but in the synagogue (Mark 1:23–28).
Fr Richard Rohr
https://cac.org/the-spirits-of-the-air-2020-10-14/
Copyright © 2018 by CAC. Used by permission of CAC. All rights reserved worldwide
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.
Calm me, O Lord, as You stilled the storm.
Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm.
Let all the tumult within me cease.
Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace.
I will lie down this night with God,
and God will lie down with me;
I will lie down this night with Christ,
and Christ will lie down with me;
I will lie down this night with the Spirit,
and the Spirit will lie down with me;
God and Christ and the Spirit,
be lying down with me.
AMEN
The Blessing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lewZ8ZhZB3Q
Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga
