Evening Prayers Monday, 24 August 2020
By Malcom Guite
Shucked of the husk of all my wasted years
I long to step forth, free of all encumbrance
To set aside the heaviness, the tears,
The sin that clings so close, the doleful hindrance
Of resentment and regret, to let them go
Roll them below the cross, as Christian once
Did in his pilgrim’s progress. Then I‘d know
A lighter step once more, the joy and gladness
The psalmist longs for here. Oh Jesus, show
Me once again the path out of my sadness
And set my steps back on your holy hill,
Send out your light and truth to be my witness
And since I cannot climb by my own will
Abide with me and be my will, my strength,
The living fountain whence I drink my fill.
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
Dear Lord as I come to you today
Fill my heart and my whole being
with the wonder of Your presence
Freedom
I will ask God’s help,
to be free from my own preoccupations,
to be open to God in this time of prayer,
to come to know, love and serve God more.
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 33:1-5
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright.
Praise the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song; play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
Isaiah 1:17
learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Matthew 16:13-17
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said,
‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’
He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered,
‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’
And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,
but my Father in heaven.
WORDS OF WISDOM
This journey from Order to Disorder must happen for all of us. It is not something just to be admired in Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Job, or Jesus. Our role is to listen and allow, and at least slightly cooperate with this almost natural progression. We all come to wisdom at the major price of both our innocence and our control. Few of us go there willingly; it must normally be thrust upon us. However, we must be wary of staying in Disorder for too long.
Everyone gets tired of critique after a while. We cannot build on exclusively negative or critical energy. We can only build on life and what we are for, not what we are against. Negativity keeps us in a state of victimhood and/or a state of anger. Mere critique and analysis are not salvation; they are not liberation, nor are they spacious. They are not wonderful at all. We only become enlightened as the ego dies to its pretences, and we begin to be led by soul and Spirit. That dying to ourselves is something we are led through by the grace of God. When we move into the Larger Realm of Reorder, we will weep over our sins, as we recognize that we are everything that we hate and attack in other people. Then we begin to live the great mystery of compassion.
There is no nonstop flight from Order to Reorder, or from Disorder to Reorder. We must dip back into what was good, helpful, and also limited about most initial presentations of “order” and even the tragedies of “disorder.” Otherwise we spend too much of our lives rebelling and reacting. I’m not sure why God created the world that way, but I have to trust the universal myths and stories. Between the beginning and the end, the Great Stories inevitably reveal a conflict, a contradiction, a confusion, a fly in the ointment of our self-created paradise. This sets the drama in motion and gives it momentum and humility. Everybody, of course, initially shoots for “happiness,” but most books I have ever read seem to be some version of how suffering refined, taught, and formed people.
Maintaining our initial order is not of itself happiness. We must expect and wait for a “second naïveté,” which is given more than it is created or engineered by us. Happiness is the spiritual outcome and result of full growth and maturity, and this is why I am calling it “reorder” (much more about that next week). Generally, we must be taken to happiness—we cannot find our way there by willpower or cleverness. Yet we all try—usually heading in the wrong direction! We seem insistent on not recognizing this universal pattern of growth and change. It seems that each of us has to learn on our own, with much kicking and screaming, what is well hidden but also in plain sight.
Fr. Richard Rohr
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.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
THE BLESSINGS
The Blessing Tamil | ஆசீர்வாதம் | Tamil Worship Leaders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDLuMAeCWO4
Goodnight and God bless…by the grace of God tomorrow will be a better day!
Revd. Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga
