As jobs slide off the to-do list and are anxiously remembered: grace As balls are dropped and others are lost in the stretch to pick them up: grace As holiday cards sit, stampless on the dining room table: grace With this breath, in this moment: grace May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (that… Read More
Thursday Prayer: in the beginning
In the stories about the beginning,you, O God,bring order from chaos:giving boundaries,separating water and land,making edges. Help us to knowwhere we start and stop,how to hold our space without intruding on others,how to discern what is ours to do,where our edges are:that we might join you in your work in the world.… Read More
Thursday Prayer: St Nicholas
Dear God, It is hard to know what is true about your faithful servant, Nicholas of Myra. “Life (highly legendary)” says one biographic entry. And it can be hard to imagine how any of what happens these days in the name of St Nick has anything much to do with that fourth century bishop. But… Read More
Thursday Prayer: lighting a candle
This is a prayer of inarticulate longing… This is a prayer of agitated pacing… This is a prayer of fists stuffed in pockets… This is a prayer of the lump in the throat… This is a prayer that doesn’t know what or how to pray… This is the prayer of lighting a candle, of turning… Read More
Thursday Prayer: holy disruptions
We praise you, O Holy Disrupter and Bringer of Beauty. We praise you, and thank you for the life you bring us. We praise you and thank you and ask that your Spirit might continue to disrupt and disturb our categories and order, our ideas about who and what belongs, our categorisation of beauty, that… Read More
Thursday Prayer: with St Francis
Love; it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More God, you are the Love that does not betray or dismay us but redeems, heals and frees us. We thank you. With Francis, may we build your Church; and may we build your Church… Read More
Thursday Prayer: for Father’s Day
In New Zealand and Australia, Father’s Day is the first Sunday of September. You can find another Father’s Day prayer for all kinds of fathers here. We pray for hearts and minds as Father’s Day approaches: For those whose hearts and minds will find joy and celebration this weekend we pray. Hear us, O God. … Read More
Thursday prayer: A prayer for take off
Dear God, If, for a moment, I could hear all the talking, all the thinking, all the longing, all the hoping, all the cursing, all the shopping lists and reminder chimes even of these few houses below me let along of all the houses in all the cities and towns and villages and the tents… Read More
Thursday Prayer: a blessing for a clergywoman
May God bless you this day: May God’s presence undergird your days: sustaining you in hope, indwelling you in peace, encouraging you in faith. May you find freedom and room to breathe when the space seems narrow; may you find boldness and clarity when you are called to speak truth to power; may you find… Read More
Thursday Prayer: like a bird
Dear Holy Spirit, A sacred kingfisher came to sit on the fence today and I was having an Important Conversation about identity and vocation, about solid ground, tūrangawaewae, a place to stand; and I was reminded that birds do not exist only on solidity: they perch on branches that sway, and on telegraph wires; they… Read More
