say a little prayer for me

I'm being asked to provide more and more input on our public prayers these days. Today alone I've been asked to draft several pieces, tweak others, and cobble together prayers from a variety of source material.

Here are some of the things I've worked on today.

COLLECT
O God, our Creator,whose grace extends like fruitful vines: Make us good stewards of your vineyard that we may mindfully labor in the care of your creation, joyfully share the bounty of your grace, and endlessly praise the wonder of your works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This is the concluding collect for the prayers of the people on Oct. 5. The PB will be in town that day and my boss started worrying today that the prayers weren't quite perfect enough yet. This is the first time something I've written has been accepted on first draft. Of course, that led to this:

PETITION FOR THOSE FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE ECONOMY
We pray for those who suffer the anxiety and fear of financial distress, and for all those charged with the equitable use of public wealth. Encourage them and us to practice wise economy, that we may be always generous.

This will be used in the prayers of the people on Sept. 28. I started with the prayer for the unemployed in the BCP and took a strong influence from the Song of Lao Tsu (WLP 803). I haven't really lifted phrases from those sources, more that the final collect bears the impression of ideas in those works. The petition will befollowed by silence and then "We lift our prayers to you, O God;" to which the people respond, "You are the hope of all creation." The responsory part was written by someone else; but the title (which appears no where in print) is all mine.

A PRAYER FOR ELECTIONS
Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges:grant the people of the United States eager resolve in the exercise of civic duty; entrust her citizens with wisdom and discernment for the public good; and guide this nation in the election of trustworthy officials and sound representatives that, by ethical process and just law, the rights of all may be protected and the needs of our society be met. Amen.

Needless to say, no good deed goes unpunished and, the next thing you know, I'm working on prayer cards. Once again, the BCP shares the credit for this--wherever credit is being given. For a variety of reasons prayers are shaped to suit the needs of our community, so I did get to play a bit with this one. I kinda like it. I'm sure it will get revised by others, but it is a bit of a novelty to be trusted to do the first draft of a prayer.

I'm now fried, having spent a good portion of the day unexpectedly writing prayers. Time for me to go back to paper cutting.

o god

Invoke the power of the One-in-All,
whose utterance cannot be constrained by a single syllable,
whose magnificence transcends the glottal stop and flat vowel,
whose vast dimension dwarfs
the constant repetition of a single Name.
Cry out, Infinite Identity;
leap from the mouths the wayward and complacent
that the air might ring with prayer and praise to
the Comforter, Counselor, Lover, and Lamb,
World Maker, Universe Builder, and Architect of Life,
Flame, Flesh, Breath, and Truth,
Dove and Key and Judge that all may understand:
You are WORD.

day labor

This week's gospel lesson is about how everybody gets paid the same, no matter how long or how hard they work. You can stand around all day moaning about how no one will give you any work, then work for one hour and still retire with a full pension. On the one hand it's a pretty sweet deal; on the other it does make one wonder why we bother doing anything if God's equally generous to all.

Yep. I really do get paid to ponder this kind of stuff with paper and scissors.

fairy tale

I followed a trail of breadcrumbs through the woods with a Princess this weekend. What was your adventure?