“May our hearts be open to holy affection…”

Merciful and ever-loving Father,

you have called us into fellowship with your beloved Son.

May our hearts be open to holy affection

and our minds readied to receive and cherish your truth.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

one God, forever and ever. Amen.

The opening prayer for Monday of this week (in the Paraclete Psalter) includes that surprising and slightly disorienting phrase highlighted above: “May our hearts be open to holy affection…” This little phrase has stuck with me the past two days and I have turned it over and over in my mind.

I don’t know the source of the prayer beyond the good people who compiled the Paraclete Psalter. It may be original with them. Jonathan Edwards, the well-known and highly regarded Puritan preacher from the 17th century, used this phrase referring to the fruit of the Spirit but that’s clearly not the case here.

Could it be that God wants us to experience his acceptance through feelings of affection?  Is this affection a result of that fellowship that we experience with his Son?

Simple, unobtrusive ideas like this sneak into our lives reminding us how much God really does love us. They remind us that his love is expressed not only through his acting on our behalf but through his heart. God’s love for us is expressed in his delight. He delights in us to such a degree that he has chosen to dwell within us. These little terms such as delight, dwell and affection give fresh expression to a phrase (God’s love) that suffers not from overuse but from indifference. God’s affection shakes us from this indifference reminding that we are both loved and liked.

Emilie Talks About Prayer

“There is a moment between intending to pray and actually praying that is as dark and silent as any moment in our lives. It is the split second between thinking about prayer and really praying. For some of us, this split second may last for decades. It seems then, that the greatest obstacle to prayer is the simple matter of beginning, the simple exertion of the will, the starting, the acting, the doing. How easy it is, and yet–between us and the possibility of prayer there seems to be a great gulf fixed: an abyss of our own making that separates us from God.” – Emilie Griffin, Clinging: The Experience of Prayer, pg. 1

How to Read Pray the Psalms: Pt. 1

Perhaps the first thing to remember when reading the Psalms is that, in addition to being musical poetry, the Psalms are prayers.  As prayer they are both public and personal. Keep in mind that personal does not equal private. While many of the Psalms were prayed and written as the result of individual experiences they became a part of the corporate prayer book of Israel and the church. First and foremost the Psalms are prayers prayed by the individual as part of the community.

As we read them we can approach them from one of two positions:  1) we can read them as if we are looking over the shoulder of the Psalmist, listening through their closet door as they pray; or 2) we can read them as if they are our own prayers, as they are, and join in with that great group of God’s people who have prayed them before.

It will become obvious that I think #2 is the best option. We should read in the hope of understanding. This is good but the psalmist’s experience in prayer is at least as important as understanding what he was getting at. Prayer is experiential. The Psalms are not merely to be understood but to be experienced.

“There is a moment between intending to pray and actually praying that is as dark and silent as any moment in our lives. It is the split second between thinking about prayer and really praying.” – Emilie Griffin, Clinging: The Experience of Prayer

Emilie Griffin’s little book Clinging is an excellent and thought-provoking volume on prayer. Her opening words above echo the experience of us all. We sometimes give up on prayer because we don’t see its effectiveness or relevance and, as a result, we wonder if we are praying at all. Sometimes we simply don’t pray because we can’t push through that thin barrier between intention and action. Other times we don’t know the difference.

Prayer from the Paraclete Psalter #2

“Gracious and eternal Lord, in your bounty you have sent us your Holy Spirit. May he teach us to think and do what is right, so that we, who without you cannot exist, may live in loving obedience to your will.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”

Prayer from the Paraclete Psalter

This prayer comes from the Paraclete Psalter and I think it is especially fitting with Wheatland’s NT reading this week (Romans 8:26-34).

“Most merciful and loving God,
your blessed Son suffered and died for us.
Grant us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time,
to overcome all that seeks to overwhelm us,
and to be confident of the glory that shall be revealed in us.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.”

Good Prayers for Long Days – #2

Knowing that God accepts us, warts and all, helps us breathe. This is a prayer from Brennan Manning, the Ragamuffin guy. I found it in Richard Foster’s book, Prayers from the Heart.

Today, O LORD, I accept your acceptance of me. I confess that you are always with me and always for me. I receive into my spirit your grace, your mercy, your care. I rest in your love, O Lord. I rest in your love. Amen.

Good Prayers for Long Days

Perhaps this should be the first of a series, Good Prayers for Long Days (or Weeks, Years, etc.).

Dear God, be good to me. The sea is so wide and my boat is so small.

A Little More On Judgment

This morning I was invited to teach a congregation that a dear friend of mine serves. I shared a similar message to the one I gave on Saturday night.

At the end of the service at Live Oaks I  prayed the “Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian.” This is prayer that Wheatland has prayed and meditated upon. Here it is, yet again (this prayer has made its way into many posts), in its entirety:

“O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth,
faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother,
for Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.”



Canticle of Thomas Merton

The following is a prayer of Thomas Merton that I consider one worth making my own. It comes from his book, Thoughts in Solitude.

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

…on God’s Fatherhood

“The Cry to God as ‘Father’
in the New Testament
is not a calm acknowledgement
of a universal truth about
God’s abstract fatherhood.
It is the Child’s cry
out of a nightmare.

It is the cry of outrage,
fear, shrinking away,
when faced with the horror
of the ‘world’
- yet not simply or exclusively
protest, but trust as well.

‘Abba Father’
all things are possible
to Thee … “

- Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, quoted in Celtic Daily Prayer, of the Northumbrian Community