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.
8 comments:
They sound mighty good to me. I spent the day begging people to provide the last little tidbits necessary for me to publish the newsletter tomorrow. Oh for the ability to crawl through the phone/cable/DSL lines and pluck the photos they have promised to send from their computers at my leisure. Yeah, yeah. I know. People get locked up for doing that, so it is just as well I don't know how! Can you write a prayer for that? It will prevent a forced extemporaneous prayer on my part.
(Thought I might need the extra bonus points).
as far as pre-written prayers go i guess they're ok. i never did get the reason for them though. other than the lord's prayer, which i learned as a child, i was taught to just talk to god as if he were a buddy. ok, maybe someone a bit more deserving of respect, but a close friend none the less. i still pray that way to this day. swear words and all, after all, why be hypocritical to someone who knows my inner thoughts anyway?
Well, Heather, the "pre-written prayers" are for public occasions mostly to cover a multitude of situations, and to prohibit one individual from expressing thoughts to God that might not reflect the will or hopes of those participating. They also protect the innocent from prayers that go on, and on, and on, . . .. The printed prayers are also helpful to those unaccustomed to praying but due to circumstances feel the need and need a starting point. Certainly, we all have our private prayers expressed in the way you describe. I remember once in a private prayer saying, "You got me into this mess, now get me out."
Only once, lit?
Yep, Jaz, only once. I took the blame on all the other occasions. That occasion was when I was supposed to produce a Lenten program which would involve the audience as well as the performers. It was epic; DeMille would have been envious. Thanks be to God.
Goo, here's a prayer for Nov. 5, for POP:
Hear, Oh Lord, our silence. (I guess one could stop here.) Just as you have given the Sabbath as a day of rest, let us give you a rest for your countless days of grace. Amen
Jaz, working on the prayer for parish communications personnel.
Heather, Lit responded pretty much on point (thanks, Lit) for the why of formalized corporate prayers from our denominational perspective. What she left out of the conversation is the scope of worship in my place of business. If you enter Peter & Paul dc into a serch engine you should pop us. We time our service to the minute; sometimes to the second. As much as I'd love to encourage more extemporaneous prayer into our worship; the powers that be disagree.
I think you meant "O God", Lit. "Lord" has oppressive, masculinist overtones. I wish I was kidding.
During the mid 80's to early 90's it seems I heard a lot about inclusive language. Folks in my (at that time) neck of the woods were in an uproar about re-writing the prayer book to reflect non-gender language in order to not exclude the female portion of the species.
I never felt excluded, so I never got too het up about this movement. I did, however, understand some of their points. And I was very amused that these same people were the most likely to eschew Rite I in favor of Rite II, stating they wanted a more contemporary feel to their worship service. If you really pay attention, Rite I uses considerably fewer male-specific pronouns (as a result of the many run-on-type sentences).
Besides, Rite I has a majesty that is missing in Rite II. Comes from being less contemporary, I guess.
lit, you've never peppered your prayers? not once? lol
i don't think he'd recognise me without some cursing in there somewhere. even when it's just a quick, hey! nice job on the trees this fall! thanks! kinda thing. the odd thing is, as much of a non-organised religion believer that i may be, i pretty much have a running conversation going most of the time. granted it's one sided but there are times when an answer or idea comes to me outta the blue that i've got to credit him for.
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