Arbuck’s Chapel- January 31, 2024

Lord, Make Me a Channel of Disturbance: The “Reverse St. Francis Prayer”  Lord, make me a channel of disturbance.  Where there is apathy, let me provoke; Where there is compliance, let me bring questioning. Where there is silence, may I be a voice.  Where there is too much comfort and too little action, grant disruption. Where there are doors closed and hearts locked, Grant the willingness to listen.  When laws dictate and pain is overlooked… When tradition speaks louder than need… Grant that I may seek rather to do justice than to talk about it;  Disturb us, O Lord. To be with, as well as for, the alienated; To love the unlovable as well as the lovely;  Lord, make me a channel of disturbance. ~Author Unknown

Lord, help me this day to shut up, listen up, open up and lighten up. You have a lot more to show and tell me than I have to show and tell You. Please be patient with me – allow me a glimpse, give me a hint of what is really going on around me as I walk and watch and wonder and work throughout this unfolding day. I know I need to worry a lot less – I need to stop over-reacting- to be calmer and not to insist on being special or right. The world does not revolve around me nor am I its or anyone else’s savior. I must learn to look up and out, not just in. I must try harder to be wiser, nicer, less grouchy, a more sensitive human being. Please help me pray my life and live my prayers.

Rev. Alan Houghton – A Book of Uncommon Prayer

“Lord, please help me to see You in all those people I do not like or do not understand. I need to see their faults, their differences, as a reflection of my own. I pray for them as vulnerable and often lonely people. Help me to see You in them. Help me to see them in me. May all our hearts and minds be opened. Amen.”

Rev.  Alan Houghton

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. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 101)

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

— Book of Common Prayer

 

 

Prayer of St. Patrick

I arise today

Through God’s strength to pilot me;

God’s might to uphold me,

God’s wisdom to guide me,

God’s eye to look before me,

God’s ear to hear me,

God’s word to speak for me,

God’s hand to guard me,

God’s way to lie before me,

God’s shield to protect me,

God’s hosts to save me

From snares of the devil,

From temptations of vices,

From every one who desires me ill,

Afar and near,

Alone or in a multitude.

Christ shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that reward may come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,

Christ in the eye that sees me,

Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through a belief in the Threeness,

Through a confession of the Oneness

Of the Creator of creation.