06/05/2021
Hi everyone! Our fourth and final section is about PRAYER. The clip including Ven Lizzie's reflections will soon be up on the Anglican Parish of Warwick YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnuMx0mrXa7jpX45P2j4dqg/videos
STEP ONE: read the chapter – as usual, please make any notes, ask questions!
STEP TWO: watch the clip, pausing along the way to make notes. I’ve copied the visuals up to this Post to assist.
Prayer, as the Archbishop notes is about three things:
• “Prayer is God’s work in us. It is not us trying to persuade God to be nice to us or to get God interested in us.”
• There is a deep connection between praying and living justly. In other words you can’t just say the words and then not live the actions.
• You need to keep at it, even when – as far as you can see – it doesn’t appear to be ‘working’. “Prayer is your promise… to be there for the God who is there for you.”
STEP THREE: An opportunity to read the Bible.
The passages we are using are from Luke’s Gospel and they look at different accounts on prayer in the life of Jesus.
The Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11: 1-4)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2011%3A1-4&version=NIV
The Parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+18%3A+9-14&version=NIV
Jesus prays at the Mount of Olives (at the Garden of Gethsemane) on the night before his death…
(Luke 22: 39-46)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22%3A+39-46&version=NIV
What do they tell you about who God is and how God acts, and therefore how we should be in community? Where are you in each passage?
STEP FOUR: Have a look at those additional questions from Archbishop Rowan on page 80-81... they're included in the visuals here...
PRAY: The Archbishop suggests a method to use when praying. You need to choose your time of day, be still, breathe and perhaps repeat a “prayer phrase”. He suggests a couple of page 82. You might use others like:
“Lord, have mercy”,
“Come, Lord Jesus”
…or as I’ve suggested, in the prayer of Catherine of Siena: “Lord, take me from myself, and give me to yourself.”
Prayer is God’s work in us. Be encouraged!