Liturgical Year – Page 2 – Wandering and Wondering

More Lenten Prayers

Call to Worship: (based on Psalm 46)

Pastor: God is our refuge and strength

People: Our ever-present help in times of trouble

Pastor: When the mountains shake and waters roar,

People: we ground ourselves in the hope of our creator.

Pastor: When nations are in an uproar and kingdoms totter,

People: we receive our strength and courage from the one who created all.

Pastor: Come let us find our sacred center as we worship God together.

Invocation

Holy One, We’re gathered here a little unbalanced. The world feels askew. We’re gathered here a little imbalanced. We feel a little askew. Meet us here and give us insight so that we can navigate this world in a way pleasing to you and to the benefit of all. AMEN

Pastoral Prayer

Holy One,

As we tear down the walls of our heart and stretch the limits of our compassion,

we seek to hold in our prayer those who we often overlook or ignore.

We pray for those who we have never seen: our neighbors far away.

We pray for those who are most different from us by language, culture, or faith.

We pray for those who we walk by daily, but perhaps do not notice – – –

the person who serves us coffee,

the one who rings us out at the grocery store or packs our groceries.

We pray for the bank teller and the telemarketer.

We pray for the farmer who seeded our dinner into the ground

and the truck driver who brought it near to us.

We pray for those who line our roads and empty our garbage cans.

We pray for the librarian and news broadcaster on the radio.

We pray for those who often go unseen – – –

the 911 dispatcher,

the night clerk at the 24 hour convenience store,

the school custodian,

the cleaning people in our office.

God, there are so many that escape our notice,

but we know they do not go out of your vision or care.

May you continue to pour your love upon them

and may you help us to stop and see and listen to their trouble or tragedy.

Let us remember our connection to the whole.

We also, O God, have those who we do know that we wish to lift up. Hear now their names:

<have people speak names aloud popcorn style>

Be with them in their time of need. Embrace them in your constant grace. Grant them the peace of recognizing your presence.

We pray all of this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together saying:

The Lord’s Prayer that is used in your setting.

Unison Prayer of Dedication

Generous God, Take these gifts that have been gathered. Bless them and return them into a wanting world. May these financial gifts be just one way that we seek to co-create with you. AMEN

Lenten Prayers

Call to Worship (based on Psalm 51 & 103)

Pastor: We come to you, O Lord, imperfect, but hungry.

People: We trust in your steadfast love and take hope in your abundant mercy.

Pastor: We turn to you, O Lord, recognizing that too often we turn away.

People: We trust that indeed you are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in compassion and lovingkindness.

Pastor: We desire, O Lord, your wisdom in our inmost heart.

People: We open ourselves to you.

Invocation

Creator, Meet us here. Meet us now. Walk with us on our Lenten Journey. Continue to create us and form us in your likeness. Let our very being act as an offering to you. AMEN

Unison Prayer of Blessing for Communion

Holy Spirit, we invite you here into our midst. Bless this bread and this juice that in receiving it, we might know you better. In drinking and eating, we might see more clearly. In being filled, we might also become more hungry. AMEN

Unison Prayer of Thanksgiving for Communion

Unison Prayer of Thanksgiving: (DMA – shared)

Holy One, you accept us as we are. You invite us to your table. You make space for all. Your gracious love astounds us. It humbles us. We pray that we might live lives worthy of your generosity. Receive our thanksgiving and our praise. AMEN

Transfiguration Prayers

Invocation

Moutaintop God, Your glory astounds us. We are in awe of all that you have done. The child who came to us just weeks ago now takes his place between Moses and Elijah. Help us to bear the light and not look away. Help us to be the light. Let us take momentary refuge here so that we too are changed; and then push us back into the world and the work you set before us. AMEN

Prayer of Illumination

Pastor: God is Holy, God is beyond what we can know, beyond what we can see, beyond what we can understand; and yet, we look, we listen, we try to comprehend.

People: God, let us see you if only but a glimpse. Let us hear you if only but a whisper. Let us understand you, if only in our heart. AMEN

Pastoral Prayer – God as the one who catches us

Pastoral Prayer –

Holy God who fishes for humanity,

We pray this day that you throw your net into the world.

There are so many who need to be caught by you:

There are those harboring resentments and anger,

Those lost in old storylines of who they could be or should be.

There are those who feel tossed and turned on the sea of life,

And those drowning in the murky waters of half-truths and made up tales.

There are those who feel abandoned out in the wide waters,

And those who are struggling trying to navigate their current conditions.

There are those who need someone to hear their cries for help and throw them a lifeline;

And those who have thrown themselves in the sea believing that no one would miss them if they were swallowed by the depths.

There are those who are afraid to sail into deep waters;

And those who hesitate to even leave port.

So many need your presence, Lord, be with them and meet them where they are.

Today, we also have specific people on our mind that need your care. Listen as we say their names:

Invite people to say names one atop the other trusting that God knows already who is in need and what they are in need of.

In your mercy, care for all who are in need; those we have named and those who we have left unnamed, and even those we do not know to name. We pray all of this in the name of your son, who taught us to pray together saying:

& Lord’s Prayer

Our Father / Mother / Creator*, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.

*Use the words you are most comfortable with or try something you haven’t before to see how that fits or pushes against your theology (understanding of God). Take some time to reflect on your experience.

This was used along with our reading of Luke 5:1-11, which is a Lectionary reading for the 5th Sunday of Epiphany in Year C.

Psalm inspired liturgy

Sometimes it can be a challenge to write liturgy from week to week, so sometimes I need to look elsewhere for inspiration. Sometimes I find liturgy that others have written that I can use (I especially appreciate https://re-worship.blogspot.com/ ). Other times, I reach into the Biblical text, especially the Psalter. Because the Psalms were originally sung, the liturgy gathered from the Psalms practically writes itself. Here, for example, is the Call to Worship and Invocation that I am using this week, which is drawn from Psalm 18. One Psalm can often be the inspiration for a multitude of prayers, litanies, and the like. The Psalms are like a well that is fed by an unending aquafer.

Call to Worship

Pastor: In the Lord I take refuge.

People: God is my deliverer.

Pastor: God is my rock and my fortress.

People: God is my safe place.

Pastor: In the Lord, I put my hope and my trust.

People: God is my protector.

ALL: I will praise God forever more.

Invocation

O God, my protector, you are with me in all that I do: from my waking to my sleeping. You watch over me and seek to guide me. Today, in this time, wake me up so that I may witness your work and begin to see the world around me with more clarity. AMEN

An extra special resource as it pertains to Psalmody is Richard Bruxvoort Cooligan’s Psalm Immersion. His musical creations from the Psalms can be used as background for meditation, for musical prayer responses, or for deepening your perspective on a specific psalm. I encourage you to check his work out.

NOTE: You are welcome to use the liturgy in worship or educational settings. Please cite the origin sources.

Prayer of Illumination

Yesterday, we spoke literally about Illuminating the Word. Today, we are talking about illuminating the word in a more figurative sense; that is, making the reading of the Biblical text more clear and understandable.

I don’t remember growing up with a Prayer of Illumination as part of our liturgy; instead, I was introduced to this prayer when I was working in partnership with two other pastors as part of our joint planning. It was a prayer that Pastor Kathy used regularly in her liturgy and so we all agreed to use it in our planning.

Since then, I have found that this Prayer of Illumination is much like the ancient practice of Illuminating the Word through drawing. It focuses us in and gives proper attention to the importance of text. The Feasting on the Word Worship Companions include such a prayer in their liturgies and you can find them elsewhere as well. I have even used music to invite the congregation into focus before the text is read.

Today, as I continue to write my Lenten / Eastertide liturgies, I was inspired to focus on the Prayers of Illumination because I came by this quote in the book Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom by Ariel Burger.

I came to learn that my questions about the disconnect between learning and living had a parallel in Wiesel’s critique of normative education. . . The gap between humanity’s supposed wisdom and the world he lived in troubled him . . . He had many painful questions to ask, but perhaps the one that drove him to become a teacher was this: Why didn’t learning and knowledge inoculate the German people against hatred?
Ariel Burger, Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom

This made me reflect on the disconnect that is often witnessed in Christians. What we say and proclaim our belief in often varies from our actions. And so I tried to carry this marrying of concept to action as I wrote my Prayers of Illumination today.

Here are several which you are welcome to use with citation:

God, Open our ears. Open our hearts. As your inspired word is spoken, let understanding unfold within us. AMEN

God, Sometimes we trust our eyes and our mind too much. Sometimes we let what we believe we know override what you know to be true. Help us to set down our preconceived perceptions and release our understanding of the world so that your truth may be revealed. Let us release our expectations so that you can show us your way. Let us open our heart and hear today’s sacred text. AMEN

Holy One, as we hear your word read, speak into our hearts. Add in what we particularly need to hear today. Draw our focus not out into a story of old, but in toward our innermost heart. Speak to us, O God. Speak so that we might hear. AMEN

Prepare our hearts, O God. Bring us to attention so that as we hear the scripture read, we do not just hear words spoken but also receive a message from you. Open us to your purpose and calling. AMEN

Author of words divine, In the words we are about to hear reveal yourself. Greet us. Meet us as we hear this story of old. AMEN

God of eternal light, Shine your rays through the words are about to hear. Like a laser, emblazon them upon our heart so that we might ponder them long after the reading has ended. AMEN

God, Etch the words we are about to hear upon my heart. Give me pause to return to them, remember them, and revive them as I have need. Your word is my strength and my guide. AMEN

FOR EASTER – On this most blessed day, O Lord, let us witness to your word. Let us join with the people of the past, the people around the globe, and the people of the future to celebrate the wondrous story of your son’s resurrection. Let our hearts receive the good news so that we may go out into the world and live it out. AMEN

Wondrous One, Wake my heart that it may hear the word about to be read. Let me gather it like a precious woven tapestry so that I may take it out and admire it again and again and again. AMEN

Radiant God, who placed the stars in the night sky and gives them the power to shine, as we hear today’s word read bring them your radiance as well. Let us hear them and know them in ways that bring forth awe, admiration, and a change in our way of being, AMEN

Holy One, Reveal your word to us today. Let us hear your inspired word in the depths of our soul. Let it unfold within us that we may be transformed having heard it. AMEN

God of word and witness, Wake us from our sleepy ways. Shake us from our passivity. Call us to attention. Prepare us to hear your holy word and thus to become part of your living embodied message in the world. AMEN

ASSCENSION SUNDAY – Holy God, As we hear this glorious word, let us not stand and gawk. Let this word move us, propel us, and inspire us. May your inspired word not close us in, but open us up to the needs of this world and the actions that you call us all to. May these words we hear spark our internal fire of compassion, love, and justice. AMEN

Teacher, Abba, Creator, As we prepare to hear your word, let us open our whole selves to the hearing of it. As your word is read, let us not just prepare to store it as a memory, but instead let it flow through us, changing us as it does. Let your word not fade from our memory, but become a part of us and who we are going forward. AMEN

PENTECOST SUNDAY –Holy Spirit, as you alight on our hearts today inscribe the words we are about to hear upon it. Let them not leave us when the reading is complete, but let them continue to form and inform us long after our time today. AMEN

Do you use a Prayer of Illumination in your worship? Do you find such a prayer helpful?

Please feel free to share any that you would like to for others to use below.

Lenten Planning

Today, I finally packed away the final Christmas ornaments (except the one I said I would keep out to remember Jesus’ birth throughout the year), Epiphany is in full force, and I’m in full Lenten planning phase.

*The Christmas ornament that I held out from my birth-father and his wife.*

I try to finish my planning within my blocked out planning time, but this season, it just didn’t pan out. I continue to fill in the blanks, but I have gotten pretty far and should be ready long before March 5th.

Here is a glimpse into the overall theme:

And here is a Call to Worship and Invocation from the series:

CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 51 & 103 – DMA)

Pastor: We come to you, O Lord, imperfect, but hungry.

People: We trust in your steadfast love and take hope in your abundant mercy.

Pastor: We turn to you, O Lord, recognizing that too often we turn away.

People: We trust that indeed you are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in compassion and lovingkindness.

Pastor: We desire, O Lord, your wisdom in our inmost heart.

People: We open ourselves to you.

INVOCATION (DMA)

Creator, Meet us here. Meet us now. Walk with us on our Lenten Journey. Continue to create us and form us in your likeness. Let our very being act as an offering to you. AMEN

If you are a pastor, what are you considering for this Lenten season?

If you are not a pastor, what would you hope to hear in church this spring?

NOTE: If you ever would like a template that I’ve created, please just ask. I’m happy to share. If you would like to use a prayer, piece of liturgy, or poem for educational or religious reason, please just cite me as the author.