Month: June 2019

Psalms 42 and 42 – My Tears Have Been My Food

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Psalms 42 and 43

1As a deer longs for flowing streams,

so my soul longs for you, O God.

2My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

When shall I come and behold

the face of God?

3My tears have been my food

day and night,

while people say to me continually,

“Where is your God?”

4These things I remember,

as I pour out my soul:

how I went with the throng,

and led them in procession to the house of God,

with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,

a multitude keeping festival.

5Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my help 6and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;

therefore I remember you

from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,

from Mount Mizar.

7Deep calls to deep

at the thunder of your cataracts;

all your waves and your billows

have gone over me.

8By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,

and at night his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

9I say to God, my rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I walk about mournfully

because the enemy oppresses me?”

10As with a deadly wound in my body,

my adversaries taunt me,

while they say to me continually,

“Where is your God?”

11Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my help and my God.

1Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause

against an ungodly people;

from those who are deceitful and unjust

deliver me!

2For you are the God in whom I take refuge;

why have you cast me off?

Why must I walk about mournfully

because of the oppression of the enemy?

3O send out your light and your truth;

let them lead me;

let them bring me to your holy hill

and to your dwelling.

4Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God my exceeding joy;

and I will praise you with the harp,

O God, my God.

5Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my help and my God.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Bring your attention to your desire for relationship with God.
  • Notice the longing.
  • Notice the thirsting.
  • Notice the distance.
  • Name the pain and grief in the tears.
  • Let deep speak to deep.
  • Who taunts you?
  • Who walks with you?
  • Return to your desire for relationship with God.
  • Be open to the new thing God is doing in your life.
  • Refuge will look different from last time.
  • God is creating something new.
  • Let a light and truth lead you to this new place where you will see God
  • What do you need to let go to be led this new place?
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 23, 2019 the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
Psalms 42 and 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings. (c) 2019 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14 – I Am No Better Than My Ancestors

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1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a

1Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.

4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. 9At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

11He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 15Then the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silent meditation paying close attention to the deep breath.
  • As you pay attention to your breath, consider how you have been zealous for God.
  • Consider how you are no better than your ancestors.
  • Who  wants to persecute you for your actions?
  • Withdraw to the desert to rest and be fed.
  • Name the angels who feed you and lead you to shelter.
  • Be filled as you wait for God to speak.
  • What is God’s invitation for you?
  • What fruit of the Spirit will arise from God’s invitation?
  • What is God’s message for you?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 23, 2019 the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
Psalms 42 and 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings. (c) 2019 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Trinity Sunday John 16:12-15 – The Spirit of Truth Comes

/ Lil Smith / Leave a comment

 

John 16:12-15

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silent meditation paying close attention to the deep breath.
  • Notice what needs to be set aside to make room for you to embrace truth today.
  • As you set this distraction aside, invite God to share a new truth to you today.
  • Embrace this truth and listen to the message truth has for you.
  • Resist any judgment or criticism that arises in you.  Truth is spoken in love.  Be gentle with yourself.  Any truth that comes without love is false.
  • Be open to embrace the truth that is spoken in love.
  • What is God’s message for you?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 16, 2019, Trinity Sunday Year C

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8:1-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings. (c) 2019 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Trinity Sunday – Romans 5:1-5 – Love Poured Into Our Hearts

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Romans 5:1-8

1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Inhale peace.
  • Exhale fear.
  • Inhale peace.
  • Exhale pain.
  • Inhale peace.
  • Exhale tension.
  • Embrace your self as broken.
  • Stand in grace.
  • Let your attention go to your heart.
  • Feel the love of God poured out in you and over you by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • Name the hope.
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 16, 2019, Trinity Sunday Year C

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8:1-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings. (c) 2019 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Trinity Sunday – Psalm 8:1-9 – Majesty

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Psalm 8:1-9

1   O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
2        Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

3   When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4   what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

5   Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6   You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7   all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8   the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9   O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Oh, Lord, your glory encompasses us.
  • See the glory of God encompass you.
  • See the glory of God encompass your home.
  • See the glory of God encompass your neighborhood.
  • See the glory of God encompass the world.
  • See the glory of God encompass the universe.
  • Oh, Lord, you ask us to care for your world.
  • How shall I glorify you in my caring work today?
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 16, 2019, Trinity Sunday Year C

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8:1-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings. (c) 2019 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Trinity Sunday – Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 – Wisdom Calls

/ Lil Smith / Leave a comment

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

1Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? 2On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: 4“To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.

22The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. 23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth-26when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. 27When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silent meditation paying close attention to the deep breath.
  • Invite Wisdom to speak to the life in you.
  • Listen and understand.
  • How are you invited to raise your voice.
  • Invite Wisdom to speak to all that are living.
  • Listen and understand.
  • How are we invited to raise our voices?
  • Rejoice in the world and delight in the human race.
  • What is God’s message for you?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, June 16, 2019, Trinity Sunday Year C

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8:1-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings. (c) 2019 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD