{"id":5072,"date":"2013-03-26T02:31:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T09:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/?p=5072"},"modified":"2013-03-28T21:47:24","modified_gmt":"2013-03-29T04:47:24","slug":"on-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/?p=5072","title":{"rendered":"On Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I promised Amanda of Worthy of Agape<\/a> that I’d link up<\/a> and I’m only… five weeks late! Go me.<\/p>\n

My favorite prayer is probably one of the ones from the funeral liturgy in the Lutheran Book of Worship. I love it because it acknowledges the dichotomy of being simultaneously a saint and sinner (simul justus et peccator). I post it whenever a loved one dies. The most recent one was my cousin Erik in 2011.<\/p>\n

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant, Erik. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

I came to faith in the Episcopal Church so the Book of Common Prayer is still the language of my heart even though I’ve been Lutheran for twice as long as I was Episcopalian. I love the prayer for confession of sin:<\/p>\n

Most merciful God,
\nwe confess that we have sinned against you
\nin thought, word, and deed,
\nby what we have done,
\nand by what we have left undone.
\nWe have not loved you with our whole heart;
\nwe have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
\nWe are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
\nFor the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
\nhave mercy on us and forgive us;
\nthat we may delight in your will,
\nand walk in your ways,
\nto the glory of your name. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

I also love some of the collects from Morning Prayer:<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

I also love the General Thanksgiving:<\/p>\n

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
\nwe your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
\nfor all your goodness and loving-kindness
\nto us and to all whom you have made.
\nWe bless you for our creation, preservation,
\nand all the blessings of this life;
\nbut above all for your immeasurable love
\nin the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
\nfor the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
\nAnd, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
\nthat with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,
\nnot only with our lips, but in our lives,
\nby giving up our selves to your service,
\nand by walking before you
\nin holiness and righteousness all our days;
\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord,
\nto whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
\nbe honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Having experienced the spectrum of Protestantism, I have to say that I am a liturgy person at heart and in practice. When I don’t have the words to pray, the words coming from my heart are the words of the Rite II liturgies in the BCP and the various settings in the Lutheran Book of Worship. I crave order internally and I feel more fed with liturgy than I do in more free-form worship.<\/p>\n

That’s all! Go love up Amanda<\/a> and see what other people have said<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I promised Amanda of Worthy of Agape that I’d link up and I’m only… five weeks late! Go me. My favorite prayer is probably one of the ones from the funeral liturgy in the Lutheran Book of Worship. I love … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-life","category-faith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p38xoO-1jO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5072"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5075,"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions\/5075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}