FCCR-ACE Prayer Blog

Congregationalists Learning to Pray

God,

Help still the longing in me

you know the longing for the vibrancy and excitement

that comes with a visit to the city…

The longing that comes when I find myself in huge congregation

where the music is grand and the sermon is likewise

help me appreciate the humble

help me appreciate the calm and not call it boring

help me appreciate the blessings you have given me,,

Amen

Hi God,

I’m thinking about lameness today,
the physical lameness with which
I began the week
and Brewster ended it,
and also the spiritual lameness
that hobbles us all
when we fail to be attentive
to your call.

So my prayer today
is that you help us be attentive to your will,
thereby, healing our lameness,
at least the spiritual kind.
Help us to walk with you,
and with each other,
as instruments of your grace.

Also, please have mercy on my soul,
lame sinner though I continue to be.

Amen

Hi God,

Sometime last year,
we tossed a used-up pot of plants
outside the back door.
They’d blossomed and served their purpose, right?
So why keep them around?

A week or two ago, I noticed
that little shoots were starting
to spring out of
the discarded pile of potting soil.
So, we stuffed the potting soil
back into a pot,
along with the sprouty things.
Lo and behold,
today we have a little yellow flower
sticking out of that pot.
I wanted to take a picture to show you,
but it came out kinda blurry.
Please accept my word
that the little, discarded yellow flower
is unimaginably uplifting.

So I’m thinking that we need to remember
that us discards still carry the potential
to sprout and blossom again.
This strikes me as a useful commentary
considering our current economic situation.
Companies are falling over themselves
to keep profits up by tossing out
those they consider to be discards.

So my prayer today is
that you’ll find a way to remind us discards
that we still have the potential to blossom
and to make life better for those around us.
Also, help us actually to do that,
i.e. make life better for those around us,
whether or not we are current discards.

Finally, please have mercy on my soul,
sinner though I continue to be.

Amen

Dear God

I am so grateful for time off. I am grateful for paper reading in full and quiet time I am grateful for the anticipation of an evening at the opera I am grateful for the memory of an evening at the dance I am grateful for sons who are interested in shaing these events…

may it always be so…..

Amen

Hi God,

If I had my druthers,
I’d prefer not to find myself
becoming old and crotchety.
I can probably cope with the getting old,
it’s the getting crotchety I’d like to escape.
Still, it’s a bit tough not being crotchety
when, on the sixth anniversary
of the invasion of Iraq,
no one much seems to care.

[REDACTED: intemperate rant]
You know what is in my heart.

My prayer today
is that you can help us learn:
that we’re all in this together;
that war and economic malaise are related;
that we only solve the one, by addressing the other.

Also, please have mercy on my soul,
sinner though I daily be.

Amen