Praying without Ceasing - April 26
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 41, 52; PM Psalm 44; Wisdom 1:16-2:11,21-24; Col. 1:1-14; Luke 6:1-11
This past Sunday morning, there were eight of us sitting around a table at Camp McDowell to share in the sacrament of Holy Communion. I joined one of our Cursillo reunion groups for fellowship this past weekend, a chance to resume some of what we all have missed and value in our lives. All of us had received our vaccines and were hungry for fellowship and connection. We sat around a table breaking bread and extending each other the body and blood of Christ. In lieu of a sermon, we each shared the challenges and gifts of this past year, each person with a strikingly different outlook on the past year.
I shared how my prayer life has changed, and largely as a response to technology. Each day, as prayers come across our computer and phone screens as we pray the Daily Office, on Sundays as we offer prayer out loud for the prayers that people offer up, we all say names and the concerns of our community. Thanks to worshiping on Facebook and YouTube, I pray by name a lot more for the people in our midst, and I think all of the people who have joined in, especially in our virtual services, have too. The result is, it’s impossible not to hold our congregation in prayer when you have learned so much about the concerns of our community. I feel more in tune with our congregation, and for those who have been participating in this way, I hope you are finding this to be true as well.
A few weeks ago, I received a prayer request from some former parishioners from the congregation I served after seminary. I think they have worshiped some with us online. We prayed together, and as I was driving home from Camp McDowell, I received a phone call from a number that was not stored in my phone. I answered, and it was my old friends asking for me to pray once again over the phone, this time the service we call Last Rites from the prayerbook as they were saying goodbye to their beloved mom and wife from a long battle with COVID-19. The concluding prayer of the service is especially beautiful: “Deliver your servant, N., O Sovereign Lord Christ, from all evil, and set her free from every bond; that she may rest with all your saints in the eternal habitations; where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
I’ve been reflecting on how important it has been for us to be praying together. I know the journey will continue to be difficult and painful for my friends, but I have all the confidence that God’s love shines through by our prayers and love for each other, and the hope that God has promised. I love this Epistle that we begin reading today, specifically how Paul offers a vision for praying without ceasing. It is as if he carries his love for his beloved friends in Colossae with him at all times. Through prayer, he hopes that his friends will “share in the inheritance of the saints in the light… and be rescued from power of darkness and transferred [them] into the kingdom of his beloved Son.” This prayer isn’t for health, prosperity, and good fortune, but for the eternal life that God has promised us. His friends come to know this truth through Paul’s prayer.
I’ve learned a lot about prayer these past thirteen months. I hope you have too, and I invite you into a posture of keeping the concerns of our community, our loved ones, our friends, and ourselves, perpetually on our hearts and minds. Paul thinks it possible, and I’m inclined to agree. And through this, we too can be rescued and find the life of love and hope that God invites us into.
Faithfully,
John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: How has your prayer life changed over the last year? Are there other changes you would like to make?
Daily Challenge: Each week Saint Stephen’s publishes a public prayer list. It can be found on the Saturday email. Prayer for each person on our list today. You can read last week’s here.