First, hear my confession. I broke my week-old vow to stop reading the Reformation21 blog this weekend, and paid an awful price for it in terms of increased adjida. Two posts, one impugning dark motives onto a cause I dearly believe in and another insulting the intelligence of some of my fellow students nearly sent me over the edge.

Thankfully I opened my inbox first, and there were these wonderful prayers from the Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland, sent to me by my friend Joel Garver. In his email, Joel quoted C. S. Lewis as saying that prayer is not about changing God, but God’s changing us. Amen.

God of power and love,
bless your Church throughout the world.
By your Holy Spirit,
draw the scattered flock of Christ
into a visible unity,
and make your Church
a sign of hope to our divided world.
Grant that we who bear your Son’s name
may be instruments of your peace,
bringing peace to our homes,
our nation, and our world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lord God,
we thank you for calling us
into the company of those who trust in Christ
and seek to obey his will.
You have made us strangers no longer
but pilgrims together
on the way to your kingdom.
Guide us closer to you and to one another
in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace,
and strengthen us together
in mission and service to your world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bless us, O God,
with the vision of your being and beauty,
that in the strength of it
we may be neither hasty
nor slothful in our calling.
And give us grace to be patient with others
as you are patient with us,
that we may gently bear with their faults
while we strive at all times to root out our own;
for your mercy’s sake. Amen.

Set free, O Lord, the souls of your servants
from all restlessness and anxiety.
Give us your peace and power,
and so keep us that,
in all perplexity and distress,
we may abide in you,
upheld by your strength
and stayed on the rock of your faithfulness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God,
you are the source of all good desires,
and right judgments, and all just works.
Give to your servants the peace
which the world cannot give;
that our hearts may be set
to obey your commandments,
and that, freed from fear,
we may pass our time in rest and quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 7th, 2006 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Christian Community, It`s All About Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.