Pastor’s Prayers

Lord Jesus, teach us how to be humbled. Teach us how to love like you, respecting others however lowly, poor and unattractive they are. Teach us to complete our tasks as you did, in unhuurried quietness of mind, not thinking we deserve something more exciting. Teach us to see how unworthy we are of all the gifts that you have given us, and not to regard them as ours by right. Help us to see how small we are in comparison with you, and in realizing this forget our self-importance, and serve you and everyone in true humbleness of heart.”

Etta Gullick

“Loving and tender providence of my God, into your hands I commend my spirit; to you I abandon my hopes and fears, my desires and dislikes, my temporal and eternal prospects. To you I commit the wants of my perishable body; to you I commit the more precious interests of my immortal soul, for whose lot I have nothing to fear as long as I do not leave your care. Though my faults are many, my misery great, my spiritual poverty extreme, my hope in you surpasses all.”

St. Calude de la Colombiere

“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 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 I will 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.”

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Just as our glands secrete things called hormones directly into the bloodstream, so our soul secretes things called prayer directly into the lifestream.

O God, may these soul secretions be the test of everything.

O God, may they be the source of everything.

O God, may they be the driving force of everything, giving us physical energy, intellectual vigor, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of the realities and complexities underlying human relationships.

O God, may they be the director of everything. For if these secretions of the soul are right, everything is right and we are healed, saved and born anew.

O God, may we abide in prayer so that we may enter the ceaseless movement of your creative activity, now and forevermore. Amen.

Lord, the word that I need to hear today, more than any other, is a word from you. It is your Word that I seek. It is your word that I need to hear. It is your word that I need to bear. May your Word be made flesh in me today. Amen.

“Lord, you emptied yourself of your eternal glory and took the form of a servant. Everything was made to serve and praise you, but you did not please yourself, you became servant of all. Lord of heaven and earth, you offered your cheeks to be struck, your back to be scourged and your hands and feet to be nailed to a cross.” John Wesley

Lord, let my constant refrain be the same as Paul’s constant refrain: “not me, but Christ.” May I say with the Psalmist, “Your decrees are the theme of my song” (119).