An Amazing Time of Lenten Prayer

I will miss quite a few things when we move from Bolivia back to North Carolina in June – most of those “things” have something to do with the people who have impacted our lives for the past two years.  Some of these are fellow teachers (who have ruined other schools for me), some are missionaries from other agencies – SIM, International Justice Mission, Samaritan’s Purse, Word Made Flesh – some are locals (like the Peruvian guy who makes amazing croissants and looks like the world’s greatest grampa).

Many of these amazing people – not, unfortunately, the croissant man – are part of our little monthly “house church” we call Community Group.

This month (last night, to be exact), they blessed our socks off.

We had a Lenten prayer service, and I asked folks to come with scripture passages pertaining to prayer.  Also, instead of a linear list of prayers, I printed a number of diverse prayers (from prayers of pennance to ones of intercession, to praise and doxologies) from diverse sources, cut them out so folks could each take one to read as the Spirit led, and passed them out along with the service guide/songsheet.

What I expected to be kind of messy and disorganized (because of my own logistical failings) turned into a time of, not only prayer, but a spoken-word praise service.  A non-stop chorus of prayers and scriptures (many provided by our friends!) went up before the Throne of Grace for quite a while.

By the time that segment ended with the singing of John Michael Talbot’s “Only in God” (a song everyone should know), my spirit was soaring, and I was just so… thankful?… proud?… thrilled?… with the blessed community God has provided our family here in this faraway land.

Here’s a printout of the prayers, in case you’re curious.  These sheets were cut apart so each prayer was on a separate little sheet of paper. I found them collected in The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle, the Book of Common Prayer (especially Form V) and Listening Prayer by Leanne Payne.  I paraphrased or compressed a few of the prayers.

In His Peace,

Tom

This week’s collect, according to the Divine Hours

This week’s prayer really resonated with me, and I wanted to share it:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the Light of the world: Grant that Your people, illumined by Your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that He may be known, worshiped and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord who, with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Wow… shine with the light Christ’s glory.

Caught as Much as Taught

One of the reasons I am so passionately adamant that all forms of Christian fellowship need to predominantly be welcoming to children – not child-centered, but conducive to children worship with, and then playing near, adults (sometimes, even at adult Bible studies!) – is because they benefit so much from watching the Faith happen, seeing it as something you grow up with, not grow out of.

It’s a cliche because it’s true: “the Faith is caught by our children as much as it is taught to them”.  I saw that this Saturday morning, and was much overjoyed.

This morning, my daughter Avery woke up a little after me.  Once I was finished washing the dishes, I showed her the valiant defeat suffered by her mommy and me at the hands of one of our friends in a board game last night (she asks me to report on these types of late-night activities; I think all kids are curious about what grown-ups actually do after their kids’ bedtimes!).

But then, when I was finished telling her, she looked rather seriously at me (the kind of look like, “I have something rather important to share with you”), and said, “Daddy, you know how on Saturdays, when you don’t have to go to work, you sit and read your prayers with me?”

It’s true that Avery has walked in on me praying from my prayer book (The Divine Hours, compiled by Phyllis Tickle) several Saturday and Sunday mornings (and many weekdays during a recent hiatus from our work here in Bolivia), and it’s true that she has many times sat down to listen (and to echo certain parts, like the “Our Father” or the Gloria).  I’ve even occasionally altered things on the fly, such as singing “This is the Day” when the psalm on which it is based came up in the prayers, to make it more interactive and accessible for her.

But no way did I expect her to be anticipating that time together.  For her, I thought the specialness of this simple fellowship was the act of cuddling on the couch, which I’m sure it is, in large part.  However, there was no mistaking it: she wanted to do prayer-time with daddy.  She wanted to meet Our Father with her daddy.

So, with a wink and a shrug, I decided, there’s no such thing as too much prayer.  I found the next Office in the prayer book, sat with her, and we prayed.

Now, that’s something I’m glad she’s catching from me!