Prayer of the Week - Pentecost 26

Beloved Parishioners,

Today I came to work resolved to write the Prayer of the Week. So I sat down in front of my computer woke it up, and checked my e-mail first thing. Satisfied that everything important was taken care of, I started drafting the Prayer of the Week. I opened up a window and got ready to type and then... nothing.

Not to worry, I reasoned, I'll expose myself to what other God-groupies are writing and then I'll try again. So I opened up my internet browser and read some inspirational stuff written on blogs I follow. Satisfied that I was up to date on what my colleagues on-line had to say, I tried again. Again... nothing.

So, last resort, I went into the sanctuary with one of my favorite devotional manuals and started praying. I prayed a litany to the Holy Spirit and then prayed for the people I know who have specific needs. Then I opened up psalms to a random page and started chanting them. Chanting the psalms is a very soothing sort of prayer. The Book of Psalms is the original Prayerbook.

I sat down again front on my computer and... nothing. I have no idea what to write about for prayer of the week. I have some sense of what I'm going to preach about on Sunday. I even managed to start an essay to be published in the Anglican newspaper in January. But as for a Prayer of the Week... nothing.

But, alas, all is not lost. I can hear the voice of my teachers in my head: attend to process. Notice what's happening. So that's why today I'm praying about praying:

Holy God, you make all our lives one prayer of thanksgiving and love to you, Creator of All. Send your Holy Spirit to your people to teach us to pray. Light our hearts on fire with your flame of love to brightly illuminate the dim pathways of grief and doubt. Inspire us with an awareness of your presence so that all that we do may be a gesture of affection to you, lover of all. We ask this in the Name of the One who died and rose again, Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

-t