St. Blogory’s— The internet café d’un prêtre à la retraite ac o offeiriad wedi ymddeol.

Beyond Serenity

 

From the author of the Serenity Prayer:

 

“O God,

who has made us the creatures of time,

so that every tomorrow is an unknown country,

and every decision a venture of faith:

Grant us, frail children of the day,

who are blind to the future,

to move toward it with a sure confidence in your love,

from which neither life nor death can separate us.

Amen.”

 

Reinhold Niebuhr

 

Mardi Gras 2019

 

As we leave the celebrations which began at Christmas, and prepare to enter Lent and it's call "to prayer, to trust and dedication" while "God brings new beauty nigh," here's a spiritual feast of prayers to parallel the physical feast of pancakes!

The Christian Calendar is a promiscuous invention, because sometimes there's a Second Sunday after Christmas (but usually not), and sometimes Epiphanytide manages 8 full weeks (but almost never). 

This year we didn't have a Second Sunday, and yet, to my mind, its appointed Collect (or Prayer) is one of the most profound and loveliest of any prayer I know.

 

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

And this year we also missed out on the Collect for the Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany, another prayer of beauty and grace:

 

Most loving Father, who will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

 

The first of these prayers dates to the 5th or 6th centuries, and the second was written by William Bright, a 19th century Anglican priest.

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I am currently reading Kindling the Celtic Spirit, by Mara Freeman (New York: HarperCollins, 2001).

It's organized by months, and here's a portion from page 72, titled "Preparing the Ground"— an apt reading as we enter Lent:

 

"A seed will remain forever dormant unless it is planted in earth that has been well prepared for it.

"What groundwork do you need to do before you can give expression to your soul?

 

"As the plow may encounter hard, stony soil, we may allow all sorts of things to get in the way of making changes.

"Take a look at any resistance you may have to working toward your most important goals.

 

"In the modern world we are continually bombarded with distracting stimuli.

"The straight, orderly furrows of a plowed field remind us of the need to focus on our own projects.

"Look at ways you can clear space and time for cultivating the soul."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Albrecht Dürer

"Christ appears to Mary Magdalene as a Gardener"

ca 1503-1504

 

The Holy Spirit as Feminine

 

This is an edited compilation of excerpts from two sources, with additions to provide details and context. These primary sources are: Sebastian Brock, 1990, The Holy Spirit as Feminine in Early Syriac Literature (http://www.womenpriests.org/theology/brock.asp) and Steve Santini, 2001, The Feminine Gender of the Holy Spirit (http://www.musterion8.com/feminine.html).

 

For Christians, God has been revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

This revelation is rooted in Jesus' history as recorded in the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

That Jesus called God "Abba, Father (or Papa, Daddy)" is part of that history.

And that Jesus was incarnate as a male is also part of that history— although the Nicene Creed in the original Greek insists that Jesus' significance lies in his having been "made human (anthropos)" rather than male (aner).

 

These first two points almost require masculine pronouns for God as Father (though not God as Trinity— see Genesis 1:26-27, below), and Jesus as Son.

What follows are points that almost require feminine pronouns for God as Holy Spirit.

 

Let's begin with Scripture, following Richard Hooker's formulation in his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594, 1597):

"What Scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place of credit and obedience is due; the next whereunto is whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by the force of reason; after these the voice of the church succeedeth."

In other words, Scripture, reason, and Church tradition, in that order, are authoritative sources.

 

We start at the very beginning of Scripture with the first part of Genesis 1:26:

Genesis 1:26: "Then God said, Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness. . . ."

The original Hebrew uses plural pronouns because the Hebrew word for "God" is a plural noun: elohiym.

The New Revised Standard Version [NRSV] of the Bible translates the Hebrew lowercase adam as "humankind."

The uppercase Adam doesn't occur until Genesis 2:20, where it is used as a proper noun for the "first" human being in that chapter's alternate creation story.

Genesis 1:27: "So God created humankind in their image, in the image of God they created them; male and female they created them."

Because the Hebrew text continues to use the plural word for "God," I have changed the NRSV's masculine pronouns to gender neutral plural pronouns.

Christians who know God as a Trinity of Persons should not be astonished by the use of plural pronouns!

 

Turning to the Gospels, Jesus used feminine images for God:

Luke 15:8: "Jesus said, 'Or what woman having ten silver coins. . . .'"

In chapter 15 of his Gospel, Luke brings together 3 of Jesus' parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son; or perhaps more accurately, the finding shepherd, the searching woman, and the watching father. Parables are like jokes— the first named is the protagonist, and typically a parable's first-named actor is a stand-in for God. In these three parables, the shepherd, the woman, and the father all represent God.

Luke 13:34 and Matthew 23:37: "Jesus said, 'How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!'"

 

Many Christians in the succeeding generations of the Church reasoned out the implications of Scripture, and their reflections formed the tradition of the Church.

Gregory of Nyssa, one of the principle architects of Trinitarian theology, delivered 15 sermons on the Song of Songs (also called the Song of Solomon) around AD 390.

Reasoning from 1 Corinthians 8:6— "for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist"— Gregory wrote, "There is one Mother of all things which exist, the cause of their being. . . ."

and

"The Deity is neither male nor female; how after all could any such thing be thought of in the case of the Deity, when even for us human beings we all become one in Christ, putting off all signs of this difference along with the whole of the old humanity? For this reason, every name we invent is of the same adequacy for indicating the unutterable Nature, since neither male nor female defiles the meaning of the inviolate Nature."

 

Jerome, around AD 420, quotes a passage from the apocryphal Gospel according to the Hebrews where Jesus speaks about "my mother the Holy Spirit."

Jerome then observes that this should scandalize no one, because "Spirit" is feminine in Hebrew, masculine in "our [Latin] language," and neuter in Greek, "for in the deity there is no gender."

Continuing Jerome's note about grammatical gender, ruha, the standard Aramaic word for "spirit," is, like ruah, the Hebrew word for "spirit," grammatically feminine.

 

What effect did grammatical gender have on how early Christians understood the role of the Holy Spirit, for example in the image of the Holy Spirit as "mother?"

In what ways did their grammatical gender affect other images and metaphors for the Spirit?

To begin answering these questions, here's a survey of several languages and their differences in gender use:

(1) In English, gender is for persons, and there are masculine, feminine, and neuter pronouns (he, she, and it). Articles, adjectives, and verbs are genderless.

(2) In French, gender affects things as well as persons, and there are masculine and feminine forms for pronouns, articles, and adjectives.

3) Greek is similar to French in that gender affects things as well as persons, except that Greek, like English, has masculine, feminine, and neuter forms.

(4) Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac have masculine and feminine forms for pronouns, adjectives, and verbs, but not for articles.

(5) In certain languages, such as Armenian, no grammatical gender exists and a single pronoun covers both "he" and "she."

This difference in the role played by grammatical gender means that the surprise English speakers might experience when hearing spirit described as "she," would be mirrored by, for example, Syrians hearing spirit described as "he."

 

In the earliest Syriac literature, up to about AD 400, the Holy Spirit is always treated grammatically as feminine. This is the norm in the three main monuments of early Syriac literature, the Acts of Thomas, and the writings of Aphrahat and Ephrem.

Beginning in the early fifth century, some people began to object to treating the Holy Spirit as grammatically feminine, and so they began to treat the word ruha as masculine whenever it referred to the Holy Spirit.

By the sixth century, ruha is regularly treated as masculine when it refers to the Holy Spirit, although the feminine form persists in some liturgical texts and poetry.

 

This three-stage development is reflected in the history of the biblical translations.

In the Old Syriac translation of the Gospels, dating from the late second or early third century, the Holy Spirit is grammatically feminine.

Eusebius, the Bishop of Caesarea from 314 to 340, wrote in his Ecclesiastical History that Hegesippus, an earlier chronicler who died in 180, "made some quotations from the Gospel according to the Hebrews and from the Syriac Gospel"— which indicates that there was a Syriac New Testament before AD 180.

The oldest copy of a Syriac Gospel, Syriac Sinaitic (syr^s), is a late fourth century manuscript, also known as the Sinaitic Palimpsest.

A palimpsest (pa-lim-sest) is a manuscript on which the original writing has been erased to make room for a later writing, yet still contains traces of the original, and this Syriac gospel had been overwritten in 778 by a biography of women saints and martyrs.

This palimpsest was found by Mrs. Agnes Lewis in St. Catherine's Monastery at Mt. Sinai, and transcribed by Syriac Professor R. L. Bensly of Cambridge in 1892.

The words of John 14:26, transliterated, read:

"But the-Spirit She to you who he will send the-Paraclete She in-my-name my Father She thing every She-will-teach you which (of) all She-will-remind-you."

Now compare with the English NRSV:

"But the Advocate [Paraclete], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

Here is John 14:26 and a bit of 27 from the Sinaitic Palimpsest:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Syriac New Testament was revised in the fifth century, it was called the Peshitta, a Syriac word meaning "simple version," or, perhaps, "common"— as in The Book of Common Prayer, i.e., for all the people.

The Peshitta preserves the feminine pronoun in many places; in others, they are altered to masculine pronouns.

Interestingly, and distressingly, there are only two places in the Gospels where the Peshitta changes the feminine to the masculine gender, and both are where the Holy Spirit "teaches"— in John 14.26, which we just saw in an earlier version with feminine pronouns, and in Luke 12.12: ". . . for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say."

Otherwise, the Peshitta retains the feminine of the Old Syriac, including two contexts of central importance, the Annunciation to Mary (Luke 1.35) and Jesus' baptism by John.

Here is Luke 1:35: "The angel said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God."

In order to prevent a literalist reading of Luke 1.35, many later Syriac writers deliberately distinguished between the "Holy Spirit" (feminine) and "the Power (hayla) of the Most High (masculine)."

By the early seventh century, the Harklean version always translates ruha as masculine wherever it refers to the Holy Spirit.

 

Now let's turn from this historical overview and focus on the Syriac tradition that describes the Holy Spirit as feminine, and more specifically as "Mother."

The earliest example, which dates from the early third century, is The Acts of Thomas, a non-canonical writing by Gnostic Christians, who thought that they had received special spiritual knowledge (gnosis).

In this eponymous Acts, Judas Thomas offers several prayers to the Holy Spirit as "Mother":

"We hymn you [Christ] and your unseen Father and your Holy Spirit, the Mother of all created things."

"We name over you [the newly baptized] the name of the Mother."

"Come, holy name of Christ, which is above every name; come Power of the Most High, and perfect mercy; come exalted gift [i.e. the Holy Spirit]; come, compassionate mother."

"Come, hidden mother . . . come, and make us share in this Eucharist which we perform in your name, and in the love to which we are joined by invoking you."

 

This imagery of Holy Spirit as Mother also appears in other Syriac writings:

In AD 350, Aphrahat makes this comment on Genesis 2:24: "as long as a man has not taken a wife, he loves and reveres God his Father and the Holy Spirit his Mother, and has no other love. But when he takes a wife, he leaves his Father and Mother."

The fourth or fifth century Macarian Homilies include a similar take on Genesis 2:24: "you have as a Mother the excellent Spirit of God."

 

The image of the Holy Spirit as Mother is by no means confined to Syriac writers or to those working in a Semitic milieu.

Hippolytus, writing in Greek around AD 200, describes Isaac as an image of God the Father, his wife Rebecca as an image of the Holy Spirit, and their son Jacob as an image of Christ— or of the Church.

Synesios, the early fifth century Bishop of Ptolemais, wrote a hymn which includes this verse:

"I sing of the [Father's] travail, the fecund will, the intermediary principle, the Holy Breath/Inspiration, the centre point of the Parent, the centre point of the Child: she is mother, she is sister, she is daughter; she has delivered [i.e. as midwife] the hidden root."

The seventh century monastic writer Martyrius speaks of "the all-holy Spirit, who, like a mother, hovers over us as she gives sanctification; and through her hovering over us, we are made worthy of adoption."

"Hovering" recalls Genesis 1.2: "And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (NKJV).

For Martyrius, the Spirit "hovers over" the baptismal font, and also the Bread and the Wine, transforming them into the Body and the Blood of Christ.

Similarly, the ninth century Syrian Orthodox theologian and scholar, Moses bar Kepha wrote: "the Holy Spirit hovered over John the Baptist and brought him up like a compassionate mother.

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In summary, although it isn't "wrong" to use masculine pronouns for the Holy Spirit, any more than it is "wrong" to use feminine pronouns for God (or plural pronouns for the Holy Trinity), using feminine pronouns for the Holy Spirit is a way to honor the Scripture's assertion that the image of God includes male and female, and Jesus' two parables with their female imagery for God, while continuing to honor the Scripture's images of Father and Son, and a way to remind ourselves that the God revealed in the Scriptures both comprehends and transcends male and female, feminine and masculine.

This is why Ingrid and I use feminine pronouns for the Holy Spirit when praying the Nicene Creed:

"With the Father and the Son she is worshiped and glorified. She has spoken through the prophets."

Amen.

 

Fourth Week of Advent 2018. Monday

 

This is the second and last day of the Fourth Week of Advent this year, and soon it will be Christmas Eve.

So what better way to conclude this series on prayer than realizing that some hymns include prayers, and we can personalize them, including these two Christmas hymns:

 

O little town of Bethlehem

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to me, I pray;

cast out my sin and enter in, be born in me today.

I hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to me, abide with me, my Lord Emmanuel.

 

Away in a manger

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask thee to stay

close by me for ever, and love me I pray.

Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,

and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

 

Thank you for following me on this Adventurous Journey through Prayer this year, and may your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white— in wonder if not in weather!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The color of the pictured Advent Candles is Sarum Blue, named for Salisbury Cathedral, where the color was used, because Sarum is the Latin name for Salisbury.

This particular shade of blue is the color of the sky just before dawn, and expresses the mood of Advent as one of dawning, expectation, hope, and light breaking through the winter darkness.

 

Fourth Week of Advent 2018. Sunday

 

In 2010, Ingrid and I visited Southwark Cathedral.

 

(Southwark is pronounced SUTH-ick.)

 

Among many luminaries buried within its walls, perhaps none is so luminous as the marvelously named Lancelot Andrewes.

 

He was born at All Hallows-by-the-Tower in the City of London in 1555, and died in Southwark in 1626, while serving as the Bishop of Winchester.

 

Here is a picture of his tomb:

 

 

Among many achievements, Lancelot Andrewes translated the Pentateuch for the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, preached magnificent sermons, and wrote many prayers. Two of them hang from a pillar alongside his tomb.

 

Be silent, still, aware,

for there in your own heart

the Spirit is at prayer.

Listen and learn,

open and find,

heart, wisdom,

Christ.

And

 

Thou, O Lord, art the Helper of the helpless, the Hope of the hopeless, the Saviour of them who are tossed with the tempests, the Haven of them who sail; be thou all to all. The glorious majesty of the Lord our God be upon us; prosper thou the work of our hands upon us, oh! prosper thou our handiwork. Lord, be thou within us to strengthen us; without us to keep us; above us to protect us; beneath us to uphold us; before us to direct us; behind us to keep us from straying; round about us to defend us. Blessed be thou, O Lord our Father, for ever and ever.

 

The first prayer makes an excellent starting point for a period of contemplative prayer.

The second prayer has elements of the Scottish Circling Prayer for protection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The color of the pictured Advent Candles is Sarum Blue, named for Salisbury Cathedral, where the color was used, because Sarum is the Latin name for Salisbury.

This particular shade of blue is the color of the sky just before dawn, and expresses the mood of Advent as one of dawning, expectation, hope, and light breaking through the winter darkness.

 

 

Third Week of Advent 2018. Saturday

 

Today's Prayer:

O God, make the door of my heart wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship, and a heavenly Father's care; and narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride, and hate. Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block to children, nor to straying feet, but rugged enough to turn back the tempter's power. Make it a gateway to your eternal kingdom. Amen.

 

This prayer was written by Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who lived from 1637 to 1711.

His name may not be familiar to you, but you may well have said if not sung his words almost every Sunday:

 

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

Praise Him, all creatures here below!

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The color of the pictured Advent Candles is Sarum Blue, named for Salisbury Cathedral, where the color was used, because Sarum is the Latin name for Salisbury.

This particular shade of blue is the color of the sky just before dawn, and expresses the mood of Advent as one of dawning, expectation, hope, and light breaking through the winter darkness.

 

Third Week of Advent 2018. Friday

 

Today we have two prayers, both appropriate for the weekly devotional remembrance of Good Friday.

The first is known as A Gethsemane Prayer:

 

Christ of wounds, Christ of tears,

Christ of the wounds of the piercing,

hold me in your hands, scarred with love,

through all my trials and sufferings,

and by your wounds may I find healing. Amen.

 

The second prayer was written by Bishop Glyn Simon of the Diocese of Llandaff in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy which befell the village of Aberfan in 1966:

 

O Lord Jesus, whose heart was pierced with a spear and by your love left open for all who enter in: Bring us there in the hour of trouble, and hold us there forever. Amen.

 

Here is a contemporary newsreel about the disaster, when a coal tip avalanched into the village, burying its children in their school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The color of the pictured Advent Candles is Sarum Blue, named for Salisbury Cathedral, where the color was used, because Sarum is the Latin name for Salisbury.

This particular shade of blue is the color of the sky just before dawn, and expresses the mood of Advent as one of dawning, expectation, hope, and light breaking through the winter darkness.

 

Third Week of Advent 2018. Thursday

 

Ingrid and I discovered another prayer at Coventry Cathedral:

 

O God, I pray for the power to be gentle, the strength to be forgiving, the patience to be understanding, and the endurance to accept the consequences of holding to what I believe to be right. I ask this through your Son, who died for me and rose again, to give me hope, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

We also bought this wooden plate for informal celebrations of the Eucharist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice that the cross is formed by three nails, representing the cross fashioned from three medieval nails found in the rubble of the bombed out Cathedral by a local priest, the Reverend Arthur Wales.

The Cross of Nails became the symbol of Coventry's ministry of reconciliation and its Community of the Cross of Nails, which you can read about here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The color of the pictured Advent Candles is Sarum Blue, named for Salisbury Cathedral, where the color was used, because Sarum is the Latin name for Salisbury.

This particular shade of blue is the color of the sky just before dawn, and expresses the mood of Advent as one of dawning, expectation, hope, and light breaking through the winter darkness.

 

Third Week of Advent 2018. Wednesday

 

On our first Sabbatical in 2000, Coventry Cathedral was one of the most palpably holy places Ingrid and I visited.

To go to the Cathedral's website, please click here.

To read a summary of the Cathedral's history, please click here.

This historical overview includes the following background for today's post and prayer:

 

"On the night of 14 November 1940, the city of Coventry was devastated by bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe. The Cathedral burned with the city, having been hit by several incendiary devices.

 

"The decision to rebuild the cathedral was taken the morning after its destruction. Rebuilding would not be an act of defiance, but rather a sign of faith, trust and hope for the future of the world. It was the vision of the Provost at the time, Richard Howard, which led the people of Coventry away from feelings of bitterness and hatred. This has led to the cathedral's Ministry of Peace and Reconciliation, which has provided spiritual and practical support, in areas of conflict throughout the world.

 

"Shortly after the destruction, the cathedral stonemason, Jock Forbes, noticed that two of the charred medieval roof timbers had fallen in the shape of a cross. He set them up in the ruins where they were later placed on an altar of rubble with the moving words 'Father Forgive' inscribed on the Sanctuary wall. Another cross was fashioned from three medieval nails by local priest, the Revd Arthur Wales. The Cross of Nails has become the symbol of Coventry's ministry of reconciliation.

 

"Her Majesty the Queen laid the foundation stone on 23 March 1956 and the building was consecrated on 25 May 1962, in her presence. The ruins remain hallowed ground and together the two create one living Cathedral."

 

To go to the Cathedral's Reconciliation Ministry webpage, please click here.

To read the Cathedral's Rule of Life, please click here.

 

And to read a two-sentence introduction about today's prayer, please click here.

 

The Coventry Litany of Reconciliation

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Letter to Rome

The hatred which divides nation from nation, race from race, class from class,

Father forgive.

The covetous desires of people and nations to possess what is not their own,

Father forgive.

The greed which exploits the work of human hands and lays waste the earth,

Father forgive.

Our envy of the welfare and happiness of others,

Father forgive.

Our indifference to the plight of the imprisoned, the homeless, and the refugee,

Father forgive.

The lust which dishonors the bodies of men, women, and children,

Father forgive.

The pride which leads us to trust in ourselves and not in God,

Father forgive.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. The Letter to the Ephesians

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The color of the pictured Advent Candles is Sarum Blue, named for Salisbury Cathedral, where the color was used, because Sarum is the Latin name for Salisbury.

This particular shade of blue is the color of the sky just before dawn, and expresses the mood of Advent as one of dawning, expectation, hope, and light breaking through the winter darkness.

 

Third Week of Advent 2018. Tuesday

 

The Caim: An early Celtic Christian prayer form

The word caim is Gaelic, primarily used in Scotland, and derived from a root word meaning circle.

In pre-Christian times, people drew circles— visible and invisible— around themselves, turning clockwise with the sun, and prayed for protection.

In Christian times, these "Circling Prayers" reminded people of God's encircling love, presence, and protection, and were adapted for particular persons, groups, or situations.

An individual might imagine a circle surrounding her or him, or actually make one out physically, using stones or candles, for example.

A group might also imagine or mark out a circle— or simply gather in a circle.

After forming the circle, the person or group might enter a time of silence and contemplation, as a way of separating from the distractions of life and practicing the presence of God, before beginning the prayer.

 

An individual praying for God's presence:

Circle me, O God, encircle me with your presence.

Keep love within,     keep hatred out;

Keep light within,     keep darkness out;

Keep joy within,     keep bitterness out

Keep hope within,     keep despair out;

Keep peace within,     keep turmoil out;

In the name of the Sacred Three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

An individual praying for those on his or her heart:

Circle N.[N.], O God, encircle him [her] [them] with your presence.

Keep love within,     keep hatred out;

Keep light within,     keep darkness out;

Keep health within,     keep sickness out;

Keep strength within,    keep weariness out

In the name of the Sacred Three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

A group praying:

Leader     

Circle us, O God, encircle us with your presence.

I invite you to offer any names or situations needing prayer.

[Participants may either offer their concerns silently, or aloud so that the rest of the group may join in with the participant's prayer concern.]

Circle us and these people and situations, O God, encircle them and us with your presence.

Everyone    

Keep love within,         keep hatred out;

Keep light within,         keep darkness out;

Keep health within,         keep sickness out;

Keep strength within,         keep weariness out;

Keep compassion within,     keep hard-heartedness out;

Keep generosity within,     keep greed out;

Keep truth within,         keep falsehood out;

Keep joy within,         keep bitterness out;

Keep hope within,         keep despair out;

Keep peace within,         keep turmoil out;

Leader

In the name of the Sacred Three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The Circle Prayer may also be adapted for special intentions, offered by an individual or by a group:

Circle, O God, those who work for peace and suffer violence or injustice [especially], encircle them with your presence.

Keep truth within,         keep falsehood out;

Keep compassion within,     keep hard-heartedness out;

Keep strength within,         keep weariness out;

Keep hope within,         keep despair out;

Keep light within,         keep darkness out.

In the name of the Sacred Three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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You will have noticed the variations of antitheses in these several examples, and, depending on the context, you may wish to use other ones.

Some antitheses may be more relevant in illness or recovery, like:

Keep health within,     keep sickness out;

Keep strength within,    keep weariness out

 

Some antitheses may be more relevant in prayers for leaders, like:

Keep truth within,         keep falsehood out;

Keep compassion within,     keep hard-heartedness out;

 

The main thing is to keep within your circle that which is gracious and positive, and to keep out that which is hostile and negative. . .

. . . In the name of the Sacred Three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The color of the pictured Advent Candles is Sarum Blue, named for Salisbury Cathedral, where the color was used, because Sarum is the Latin name for Salisbury.

This particular shade of blue is the color of the sky just before dawn, and expresses the mood of Advent as one of dawning, expectation, hope, and light breaking through the winter darkness.