Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

As we prepare for our upcoming essays on John Calvin, we will also join in this prayer traditionally attributed to Calvin. 

"Lord, save us from being self-centred in our prayers and teach us to remember to pray for others. May we be so bound up in love with those for whom we pray that we may feel their needs as acutely as our own and intercede for them with sensitivity, with understanding, and with imagination."

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

In view of our essays this week on silence, contemplation, and maintaining our humanity in an age of distraction, it is fitting to pray this prayer with the great twentieth-century contemplative Thomas Merton. Fr. James Martin calls this "the prayer that anyone can pray."

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.I cannot know for certain where it will end.Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.I will not fear for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

(Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours, 132)

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Inspired by Groupthink's recent material on spirituality and mysticism, our prayer for the week comes from philosopher, scientist, and priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ (1881-1885).

"Glorious Lord Christ: the divine influence secretly diffused and active in the depths of matter, and the dazzling centre where all the innumerable fibres of the manifold meet; power as implacable as the world and as warm as life; you whose forehead is of the whiteness of snow, whose eyes are of fire, and whose feet are brighter than molten gold; you whose hands imprison the stars; you who are the first and the last, the living and the dead and the risen again; you who gather into your exuberant unity every mode of existence; it is you to whom my being cries out with a desire as vast the universe, 'In truth you are my Lord and my God'."

--(The Oxford Book of Prayer, 6) 

Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

Yesterday, Christians in the United States celebrated our nation's independence (most of us by blowing things up and eating too much barbecue). While we at Groupthink do not hold to the notion that America is somehow favored above other nations in the eyes of God, we do think it appropriate to offer prayers for the welfare of our nation, like this one from The Book of Common Prayer (ECUSA):

Lord God Almighty, you have made all peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace. Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

Today, we join in the prayer that Pope Francis offers on behalf of all Christians at the end of Laudato si':

Father, we praise you with all your creatures. They came forth from your all-powerful hand; they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love. Praise be to you!

Son of God, Jesus,through you all things were made.You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother,you became part of this earth,and you gazed upon this world with human eyes. Today you are alive in every creaturein your risen glory.Praise be to you!

Holy Spirit, by your light you guide this world towards the Father’s love and accompany creation as it groans in travail. You also dwell in our hearts and you inspire us to do what is good.Praise be to you!

Triune Lord, wondrous community of infinite love,teach us to contemplate you in the beauty of the universe,for all things speak of you. Awaken our praise and thankfulness for every being that you have made. Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined to everything that is.

God of love, show us our place in this world as channels of your love for all the creatures of this earth,for not one of them is forgotten in your sight. Enlighten those who possess power and money that they may avoid the sin of indifference,that they may love the common good, advance the weak, and care for this world in which we live. The poor and the earth are crying out. O Lord, seize us with your power and light, help us to protect all life,to prepare for a better future,for the coming of your Kingdom of justice, peace, love and beauty. Praise be to you! Amen.