One body, different gifts

 

We have different gifts,
        according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying,
        then prophesy in accordance with your faith;
if it is serving,
        then serve;
if it is teaching,
        then teach;
if it is to encourage,
        then give encouragement;
if it is giving,
        then give generously;
if it is to lead,
        do it diligently;
if it is to show mercy,
        do it cheerfully.

 

Prayer of Confession

God you have given each of us many gifts,
but sometimes we cannot recognize
what gift we have to share,
so we hide it under a bushel.

God you remind us that all gifts are needed,
but sometimes we let ourselves be convinced
that some gifts are more special than others.

God you call us to work, to live, to love together as parts of one body,
but sometimes we decide that membership in the body
is limited by our understandings.

God, for the times we have ignored or mislabeled Your gifts,
for those times we have cut another off from the body,
We offer words of repentance,
we ask for forgiveness and grace.

… time of silent prayer …

Words of Assurance/Forgiveness

God is the giver of MANY gifts.
God is the Creator of the ONE body.
God is slow to anger and quick to forgive.
God helps us to share and honour the gifts of all,
God helps us to heal the wounds and reunite the body.
We are forgiven, loved, and accepted.
Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Amen

 
~ by Rev Gord, posted on re:worship
 

From the blog
Open the door, open the window
We are a body
Circle me, Lord
 

Gift to give


 

A prayer

Lord, take as your right,
and receive as my gift,
all my freedom, my memory,
my understanding and my will.
Whatever I am and whatever I possess,
you have given to me;
I restore it all to you again,
to be at your disposal,
according to your will.
Give me only a love for you,
and the gift of your grace;
then I am rich enough,
and ask for nothing more.
 

~ St Ingatius Loyola (1491-1556)
from The Book of a Thousand Prayers by Angela Ashwin, #27
 

From the blog
In the school of prayer with Ignatius of Loyola
On the threshold of tomorrow
In the quiet of God’s smile
 

Great gift

Pentecost prayer

based on Acts 2:1-13

Holy Spirit of God,
great gift of our exalted Lord,
on the day of Pentecost you came to the Church
as he promised, to abide with us for ever.

Come to us in your grace and power today,
to make Jesus real to us,
to teach us more about him,
and to deepen our trust in him;
that we may be changed into his likeness
and be his witnesses in the world,
to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

 
~ author unknown, posted on re:worship

FROM THE BLOG

The Gift booklet
a 12-part series of readings and prayer poems on the Holy Spirit

Thy Kingdom Come: join in and join us
 

Thy Kingdom Come: join in and join us


 

THY KINGDOM COME | 9 to 19 May 2024

Christians around the world are invited to join this prayer movement that happens each year between Ascension Day and Pentecost Sunday. You too can get involved. Simply choose five people who do not yet know the love of God for themselves and pray for them each day.

On the website of Thy Kingdom Come you can download a Prayer Journal and other resources to support you in your prayers.

COME TOGETHER ONLINE

The International Presbytery is hosting two short online prayer gatherings to coincide with Thy Kingdom Come (30 minutes max).

  • Ascension Thursday, 9 May, 10 am (CET)
  • Pentecost Monday, 20 May, 10 am (CET)

A zoom link will be posted on the Presbytery website if you’d like to attend:
www.internationalpresbytery.org/events
 

From the blog
Ask and receive
3 Prayers to our Father
The wonder of Pentecost
 

Love planting

 
A sixth-century Jewish rabbi wrote, “God, from the very beginning of creation, was occupied before all else with planting, as it is written, ‘And first of all, the Eternal God planted a Garden in Eden.’ Therefore occupy yourselves first and foremost with planting.”

Lord, give us humility to remember that we are made from dirt so that we might till the dirt and love it as we love ourselves. Amen.

 
from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro, p. 249

From the blog
3 Prayers for refugees
Grace notes
A new nature
 

Planted together


 

Prayer of Confession

(based on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

Merciful God, you plant each of us like seeds in the same field and together we are nourished and nurtured by the sun. We sway in the wind and are refreshed by the rain. We are blessed by the knowledge that you want us to grow towards what you call us to be.

When we deprive others of that same opportunity,
forgive us.

When we want to uproot those whom we believe
do not belong in our part of the field,
forgive us.

When we label others as good or bad
rather than accept them for who they are,
forgive us.

When we are reluctant to acknowledge
that we ourselves are a mixture of weeds and wheat,
forgive us.

When we are afraid to look into the fields of our own lives
to see what is growing there,
forgive us.

O God, you know us inside and out, through and through.
You search us out and lay your hand upon us.
You know what we are going to say even before we speak.
So we pray that you will help us to reach out to the uprooted and rejected,
the lonely and the outcast,
and to develop and grow the good in ourselves, in others and in the world.
This we pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen

~ by Moira Laidlaw, posted on re:worship

From the blog
Pilgrims together
Soft eyes help
United by love
 

Pots and plants


Geraniums in my kitchen garden
 

A meditation

How hard it is to know
when the pot is too small for the plant.
Some plants need to be contained, held very close.
Others cannot be crowded.
I don’t know when I myself am too pot-bound,
lacking courage to be replanted,
to take the shock of new soil,
to feel into the unknown and to take root in it.

This drying out, this self-crowding
sneaks up on me. It seems I must always feel
a little wilted or deadened before I know
I’m too pot-bound.

This african violet must first be cut
and divided. The knife goes through the root.
The white flesh exposed and moist
looks as if it is bleeding.
It must have soil immediately
so the plant won’t die.
Then water. Water taken in from below.
This water must seep up into the plant
by infusion. Then comes the waiting
as the shock registers.
Days and weeks of waiting.

It will be months before a new leaf appears.
Perhaps the plant won’t make it.
So it is when the time comes for me to be cut
and divided so as to grow again.

Help me to see this not as a problem
but as a process. Help me surrender
to the growth that only comes with pain,
with division, with helplessness, with waiting.
Especially the days and weeks of waiting.

 
from Being Home: A book of meditations by Gunilla Norris, p.32-33

From the blog
Full of air
Ask and receive
In the school of prayer with Michael Mayne
 

Plant us, root us, grow us

 

As we approach another Pentecost, I commend to you The Gift booklet, a resource that grew out of a 12-part series on the ministry of the Holy Spirit that I posted in 2017.

 

A prayer

You who led Israel through the waters,
plant us by streams of living water.

Root us in your love
and grow us up to bear the fruit of your Spirit:

    love, joy, peace,
    patience, kindness, goodness,
    faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Amen
 

from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro, p. 222
 

From the blog
Bloom where you’re planted
Thank you. For fruit-bearing trees
Flowers fall, but …
 

Tears of joy


 

Call to worship

This is the day:
when tears are wiped away;
shattered hearts are mended;
fears are replaced with joy.

This is the day the Lord:
rolls away the stone of fear;
throws off death’s clothes;
goes ahead of us into God’s future.

This is the day the Lord has made:
death has no fear for us;
sin has lost its power over us;
God opens the tombs of our hearts
to fill us with life.

This is the day – Easter Day!
Christ is Risen! Hallelujah!

 
~ written by Thom M. Shuman, and posted on Lectionary Liturgies.

From the blog
To Emmaus and back
Resurrection light
In the school of prayer with Michael Mayne
 

No more tears

A prayer

O God our creator,
whose good earth is entrusted
to our care and delight and tenderness,
we pray:

For all who are in captivity to debt,
whose lives are cramped by fear
from which there is no turning
except through abundant harvest.

May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.

For all who depend on the earth
for their daily food and fuel,
whose forests are destroyed
for the profits of a few.

May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.

For all who labour in poverty,
who are oppressed by unjust laws,
who are banned for speaking the truth,
who long for a harvest of justice.

May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.

For all who are in captivity
to greed and waste and boredom,
whose harvest joy is chocked
with things they do not need.

May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.

Turn us again from our captivity
and restore our vision,
that our mouth may be filled with laughter
and our tongue with singing.

 
by Janet Morley,
from The Book of a Thousand Prayers by Angela Ashwin, #886

From the blog
In the school of prayer with Tish Harrison Warren
Wilderness woes
Man of Sorrows