Prayer, Attention, Relationship

  • “Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully to what God says.” — Eugene Peterson, “Eat This Book”

Sunday, April 20, 2025

Prayer of Sacred Reading, Listening and Seeing, Monday, April 21, 2025, 9am

   Zoom Meeting ID. 814 8663 8380


Call to Prayer


Leader    Let Us gather in the welcome of our Triune God, Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. 


Gathered:  Lord, it is good for us to be here. 


Lighting the Christ candle


Leader       Jesus Christ is the Light of the world.  

    

Gathered:   The Light no darkness can overcome 


Invitation Song to Lectio Divina, written and gifted by music minister John Penoyar of Hinesburg, Vermont


Were not our hearts burning as He spoke

Were not His words words we longed to hear

Were not our eyes opened in the breaking of the bread

Were not our hearts burn -ing as He spoke


Our God is here He walks among us

When two or three of us are gathered in his name

Our God is here and he surrounds us

And all creation sings the glory of his name


And we shall rise, as he is risen

And though he promised us we did not understand

Yes we shall rise as he is risen

And we will know him when he calls to us by name.



Lectio Divina Guidelines


Leader
:  - During the first reading, listen for the overall sense of the passage. Select  a word or phrase that captures your attention, as though the Holy Spirit were flashing a light from the text to your heart, asking you to notice it. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, allow your eyes to be opened and your heart to be warmed as God speaks to you. 

Leader:  During the second reading let us listen for the feelings, sensations and connections that God's Word stirs in us. What message might God be speaking into your life now?.

Leader:  - During the final reading let us attend to our own hearts for a response to God’s love. What response will you carry forth from this encounter with the Living Word into the world? 

Leader:   Let us now rest in the silence and attend once more to the presence of Christ among us. We hold a quiet space to hear God speaking in our hearts











John 20:19-31.         Beholding the wounds of the risen Christ

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"






Lord’s Prayer, from "Things Remembered"  Blog of UK Theologian Peter Parr


Creator God, Our Nurturing, Perfect Love, We turn again to You. Guide us; help us to love, so that Your Will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us this day that which we need. Fill us with hope and trust. Help us to forgive our brothers and sisters (and ourselves as well); and to look on them as you look on us. Give us strength to resist temptation; when we are tempted, let us choose peace. Deliver us from our fears, for what You love is safe, and Your love remains forever and always. Amen.




Closing Prayer 


Creator of the universe,
you made the world in beauty,
and restore all things in glory
through the victory of Jesus Christ.
We pray that, wherever your image is still disfigured
by poverty, sickness, selfishness, war and greed,
the new creation in Jesus Christ may appear in justice, love, and peace,
to the glory of your name. Amen.

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Morning Prayer of Sacred Reading, Listening and Seeing, Monday, April 14, 2025, 9am

    Zoom Meeting ID. 814 8663 8380


Call to Prayer


Leader    Let Us gather in the welcome of our Triune God, Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. 


Gathered:  Lord, it is good for us to be here. 


Lighting the Christ candle


Leader       Jesus Christ is the Light of the world.  

    

Gathered:   The Light no darkness can overcome 


Invitation Song to Lectio Divina, written and gifted by music minister John Penoyar of Hinesburg, Vermont


Were not our hearts burning as He spoke

Were not His words words we longed to hear

Were not our eyes opened in the breaking of the bread

Were not our hearts burn -ing as He spoke


Our God is here He walks among us

When two or three of us are gathered in his name

Our God is here and he surrounds us

And all creation sings the glory of his name


And we shall rise, as he is risen

And though he promised us we did not understand

Yes we shall rise as he is risen

And we will know him when he calls to us by name.



Lectio Divina Guidelines


Leader
:  - During the first reading, listen for the overall sense of the passage. Select  a word or phrase that captures your attention, as though the Holy Spirit were flashing a light from the text to your heart, asking you to notice it. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, allow your eyes to be opened and your heart to be warmed as God speaks to you. 

Leader:  During the second reading let us listen for the feelings, sensations and connections that God's Word stirs in us. What message might God be speaking into your life now?.

Leader:  - During the final reading let us attend to our own hearts for a response to God’s love. What response will you carry forth from this encounter with the Living Word into the world? 

Leader:   Let us now rest in the silence and attend once more to the presence of Christ among us. We hold a quiet space to hear God speaking in our hearts















John 13: 3-10, 12-15

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" 7 Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." 8 Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." 9 Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!"10 Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. 12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?  13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.


Lord’s Prayer, translation by Neil Douglas Klotz in "Prayers of the Cosmos" 


O Birther! Father- Mother of the Cosmos Focus your light within us

and make it useful. Create your reign of unity now through our fiery hearts and willing hands. Help us love beyond our ideals and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures. Animate the earth within us: we then feel the Wisdom underneath supporting all. 

Untangle the knots within so that we can mend our hearts' simple ties to each other. Don't let surface things delude us, But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose. Out of you, the astonishing fire, Returning light and sound to the cosmos. Amen


Closing Prayer 


Eternal God, in the sharing of a meal
your son established a new covenant for all people,
and in the washing of feet
he showed us the dignity of service.
Grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit
these signs of our life in faith
may speak again to our hearts,
feed our spirits, and refresh our bodies. Amen.

Saturday, April 5, 2025

Morning Prayer of Sacred Reading, Listening and Seeing, Monday, April 7, 2025, 9am

   Zoom Meeting ID. 814 8663 8380


Call to Prayer


Leader    Let Us gather in the welcome of our Triune God, Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. 


Gathered:  Lord, it is good for us to be here. 


Lighting the Christ candle


Leader       Jesus Christ is the Light of the world.  

    

Gathered:   The Light no darkness can overcome 


Invitation Song to Lectio Divina, written and gifted by music minister John Penoyar of Hinesburg, Vermont


Were not our hearts burning as He spoke

Were not His words words we longed to hear

Were not our eyes opened in the breaking of the bread

Were not our hearts burn -ing as He spoke


Our God is here He walks among us

When two or three of us are gathered in his name

Our God is here and he surrounds us

And all creation sings the glory of his name


And we shall rise, as he is risen

And though he promised us we did not understand

Yes we shall rise as he is risen

And we will know him when he calls to us by name.



Lectio Divina Guidelines


Leader
:  - During the first reading, listen for the overall sense of the passage. Select  a word or phrase that captures your attention, as though the Holy Spirit were flashing a light from the text to your heart, asking you to notice it. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, allow your eyes to be opened and your heart to be warmed as God speaks to you. 

Leader:  During the second reading let us listen for the feelings, sensations and connections that God's Word stirs in us. What message might God be speaking into your life now?.

Leader:  - During the final reading let us attend to our own hearts for a response to God’s love. What response will you carry forth from this encounter with the Living Word into the world? 

Leader:   Let us now rest in the silence and attend once more to the presence of Christ among us. We hold a quiet space to hear God speaking in our hearts.








                                        Christ Carrying Cross, 1577-1579, Greco 

Psalm 31:9-16   9 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also. 10 For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away. 11 I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. 12 I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. 13 For I hear the whispering of many-- terror all around!-- as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. 14 But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." 15 My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. 16 Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.







Lord's Prayer   (First Nations Version New Testament)


Leader:  In gratitude for Jesus’ presence among u let us speak aloud the prayer he taught us to say to the God who loves us:


O Great Spirit, our Father from above,
we honor your name as sacred and holy.
Bring your good road to us,
where the beauty of your ways in the spirit-world above
is reflected in the earth below.
Provide for us day by day--
the elk, the buffalo, and the salmon.
The corn, the squash, and the wild rice.
All the things we need for each day.
Release us from the things we have done wrong,
in the same way we release others for the things done wrong to us.
Guide us away from the things that tempt us to stray from your good road,
and set us free from the evil one and his worthless ways.
Aho! May it be so!


Closing Prayer 


Life-giver, Pain-bearer, Love-maker,day by day you sustain the weary with your word and gently encourage us to place our trust in you.Caught between joy and despair, we yearn for the fulfillment of God’s desire beyond the brokenness and neediness of this life.Awaken us to the suffering of those around us; save us from hiding in denials or taunts that deepen the hurt; give us grace to share one another’s burdens in humble service. Amen.