Evening Prayer Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Let everything that has life,
let everything that has breath
give all the glory and honour
and praise to the One who
overcame death.
Let every living thing
sing of the mercies of our God.
Let us exalt Him wherever we live
with thanksgiving and joy
in our hearts.
If we don’t praise Him,
the mountains will.
If we don’t exalt Him,
the rocks will cry out
in our stead,
‘God is not dead!’
Let every living thing
sing of the mercies of our God.
Let us exalt Him wherever we live
with thanksgiving and joy
in our hearts.
Lawrence Chewning ©
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
I pause for a moment
and think of the love and the grace
that God showers on me,
creating me in his image and likeness,
making me his temple….
Freedom
If God were trying to tell me something, would I know?
If God were reassuring me or challenging me, would I notice?
I ask for the grace to be free of my own preoccupations
and open to what God may be saying to me.
Consciousness
I am surrounded by your loving presence, Lord,
But I am aware of my fragility and weakness.
Thank you that I can face my shortcomings
In your merciful embrace.
THE WORD OF GOD
Luke 6:12-16
Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray;
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them,
whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter,
and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip,
and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas,
and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon,
who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
WORDS OF WISDOM
Our true nature is stillness,
The Source from which we come.
. . . .
The deep listening of pure contemplation
Is the path to stillness.
All words disappear into It,
And all creation awakens to the delight of
Just Being.
—Thomas Keating, “Stillness”
This poem seems to meet people wherever they are, from beginning meditators to folks who’ve been on the path for decades. Thomas returns once again to his earlier assertion that silence is not simply an absence. On the contrary, it is personal, intimate, filled with aliveness and subtle relationality. Most of us, I imagine, still use the words “silence” and “stillness” pretty much interchangeably, both designating an absence of external noise and a state of inner emptiness. For Thomas, the two are subtly different from one another—and distinctly different from our usual perception of emptiness.
For Thomas, stillness is not even remotely a void. We tend to think of it as motionlessness, but in a quantum universe whose nature is to be in constant motion it really comes closer to dynamic equilibrium. It is T. S. Eliot’s “still point in a turning world,” the Sufi dervish’s fierce inner repose as the outer world goes flying by, the Buddhist’s “effortless action.” It does not imply lack of motion, but the harmonious balance of opposites. You are neither imposing nor resisting, but simply present, flowing in oneness with whatever is. You are the dancer at one with the dance. You are still.
We have been trained to think that the purpose of stillness is to lead us to “pure contemplation,” long regarded in mystical theology as a highly exalted state. But here Thomas turns the table on traditional theology; in a dynamically interactive universe the purpose of contemplation is to lead us beyond all stages, states, and roadmaps—beyond empty silence and stillness—into that great, flowing oneness which is our own true nature and the true nature of all that is.
Thomas himself specifically comments on this point:
The contemplative state is established when contemplative prayer moves from being an experience or series of experiences to an abiding state of consciousness. The contemplative state enables one to rest and act at the same time because one is rooted in the source of both rest and action.
Flowing oneness again. Flowing out from the Sacred Embrace, “The Source from which we come.”
Cynthia Bourgeault
https://cac.org/an-interspiritual-guide-2020-10-28/
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=m9T97GFvI44
Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga
