Over the next few months we will continue to regularly share favorite prayers from our Book of Common Prayer (BCP). If you have a favorite you’d like to recommend, please let me know! ([email protected])
Today’s prayer, For the Human Family, is from John Covington, and it can be found in the Prayers and Thanksgiving portion of the BCP, pp. 814-835…
Jesus speaks with striking clarity about who He is and why He has come. He paints a picture familiar to His listeners: a sheepfold, a gate, a shepherd, and sheep who recognize the voice of the one who truly cares for them. This is not just a pastoral image, it is a revelation of trust, belonging and life itself.
Jesus contrasts two kinds of voices. There is the voice of the shepherd, who calls his sheep by name, leads them out, and walks ahead of them. Then, there are the voices of strangers, thieves and robbers- who seek to steal, kill and destroy. The sheep, Jesus says, will not follow a stranger because they do not recognize that voice. This raises a question for us: whose voice are we listening to? In a world filled with noise-competing truths, anxieties, and distractions, discerning the voice of Christ becomes essential. His voice does not coerce or confuse; it calls, leads, and gives life….
Over the next few months we will regularly share favorite prayers from our Book of Common Prayer (BCP). If you have a favorite you’d like to recommend, please let me know! ([email protected])
Today’s prayer is from Marcia Wallace, and it can be found near the end of the Compline service, pp. 127-135 of the BCP:
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen. (BCP, p. 134)
As I mentioned in my Maundy Thursday sermon, the Anglican Communion of which our Episcopal Church is a part has a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally. Archbishop Mullally was installed in a service at Canterbury Cathedral on March 25. She is the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC), and the first woman to hold the position since it was created back in 597 CE! The ABC is the leader of the Church of England, and she serves as a “focus of unity” for the worldwide Anglican Communion….
Over the next few months we will regularly share favorite prayers from our Book of Common Prayer (BCP). If you have a favorite you’d like to recommend, please let me know! ([email protected])
Today’s prayer is from John Sandercock, and it can be found at the end of the Morning Prayer service, Rite II, pp. 75-102 of the BCP:
Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. (BCP, p. 102)…
Sunday being Palm/Passion Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem in a moment we often call the Triumphal Entry. Crowds gather, laying down cloaks and waving branches, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” It is a scene filled with excitement and hope. The people believe their long-awaited King has finally come.
But there is something unexpected about the way Jesus arrives. He rides on a donkey, not a war horse. In that culture, a horse symbolized power and conquest, but a donkey symbolized peace and humility. Jesus is showing us, from the very beginning, that His kingdom will not be built on force, but on love and sacrifice…..
Over the next few months we will regularly share favorite prayers from our Book of Common Prayer (BCP). If you have a favorite you’d like to share, please let me know! ([email protected])
Today’s prayer is from Lou Markert, and it can be found in the Prayers and Thanksgivings section of the BCP (pp. 810-841):…
This coming Tuesday, March 17, is the feast day of St. Patrick, and while you might wear green or drink dyed-green beer, I suggest a different observance − listening to one of my favorite hymns: St. Patrick’s Breastplate. We don’t hear it a lot, likely because it is long − seven verses in our 1982 Hymnal and even longer in other versions!….
One of my favorite prayers in our wonderful Book of Common Prayer comes at the end of the service of Holy Baptism. It is a prayer for the newly baptized, and in its last line especially it expresses wonderful qualities that I hope that all of us come to embody more and more….
…Also, I have a request: During Mother Anna’s sabbatical, we will be sharing favorite prayers from the Book of Common Prayer twice a month in these meditations. We’d love to know what your favorite prayer is! Please email me ([email protected]) and let me know which one and why. Your choice could be featured in a future meditation. Thank you!
As Black History month draws to a close, let us pause to remember, to honor, and to celebrate. We remember the suffering, we honor the resilience, and we celebrate the victories of the Black community, who against all odds, kept faith in a God who delivers. This Sunday’s Gospel from John, Speaks powerfully into that story.
In this passage, we meet a man named Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, a leader, educated and respected. Yet he came to Jesus at night. Night suggests darkness – not just the time of day, but a spiritual condition. Nicodemus had position but still lacked something. He had religion but still wrestled with understanding. So, he came in the dark, searching for light….