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.
Wandering and Wondering 