Last evening, I attended the Ash Wednesday service at St. John. The liturgy was just what I needed. I know that God is always present with us, but it had been a while since I experienced God's felt presence. I know that we're not to look for or expect the consolation of God's felt presence at all times, for God is no less present because feelings are absent, but it's a lovely thing when the feeling comes. Thanks be to God. The Scripture passages came alive as true words that were meant for me. The music, the brief sermon, the liturgy, everything came together and simply worked.
This morning, I read the following from Celtic Daily Prayer:
The other morning some of us were together in a church where the rector was saying Morning Prayer and leading us in guided silent prayer. He said, 'Let us pray for those whom we love.' And that was easy. Then he said, 'Let us pray for those whom we do not love.' And there rose up before my mind three men for whom I had to pray. They were men who have opposed my work. In this they may have been wrong. But my wrong was in resentment and a feeling of letting myself be cut off from them, and even from praying for them, because of it. Years ago I read a quotation from Mary Lyon that recurs to me again and again: 'Nine-tenths of our suffering is caused by others not thinking so much of us as we think they ought.' If you want to know where pride nestles and festers in most of us, that is right where it is; and it is not the opposition of others, but our own pride, which causes us the deepest hurt. I never read a word that penetrated more deeply into the sin of pride from which all of us suffer, nor one which opens up more surgically our places of unforgiveness.
Samuel Moor Shoemaker - And Thy Neighbor
Years ago I was on clergy retreat with the late Bishop Albert Rhett Stuart of Georgia. At the end of my confession, he gave me the following simple penance: pray for your enemies. This direction has stuck with me ever since.
ReplyDeleteI pray for my "enemies" myself (I don't have real enemies, just people who have hurt me), through gritted teeth.
ReplyDeleteI pray God gives them what they need. This covers a multitude of sins on my part. It allows for God to bless them, but also to give them a kick up the backside if that's requisite, which is obviously my emotional preference, but I trust that God can see past that to what they actually, really need.
I also pray that God provides for them. This is the tiny part of my impulse which is generous.
An excellent penance, Ormonde - a reminder of Jesus' words.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's okay if we rail at God about our enemies. Look at the imprecatory Psalms. I pray for God to soften their hearts and then do with them as he will. When we pray for our enemies, I believe the prayers are efficacious for us, too. We touch God, and God returns the touch and touches the one we perceive as the enemy.
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ReplyDeleteAll prayers are efficacious for the one who prays, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteYes they are, Mimi - sorry about sounding rather aggressive above, by the way. I didn't mean it so much that way but it reads that way this morning.
ReplyDeleteBesides the people who have hurt me, I also pray for people I know I have hurt over the years.
I am enjoying your Lent posts so far, even though there have only been two of them.
I have now deleted my aggro-sounding comment. It was a bit of poor self-editing on my part. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteCathy, you needn't have deleted your comment for my sake. I didn't have a problem with it. Obviously you did, so away it went, which is okay, too.
ReplyDeleteCathy, in today's readings from the Lectionary, you will find Psalm 35, most surely an eye-opener, imprecatory Psalm.
ReplyDeleteBless them; change me.
ReplyDeleteI do appreciate the "abruptness" into quietness that Ash Wednesday brings. At St. Mark's, the fabulous pipe organ is silenced, and the 4-part a cappella harmony particularly reverential. The simple reminder of our frailty, profound.
I often find when I pray for those I really don't like I begin to find what I might like about them!
ReplyDeleteBless them; change me.
ReplyDeleteKJ, that's a good prayer. We continue to use our wee pipe organ in our wee church. I find that I very much miss the alleluias, so not singing or saying alleluia is a kind of Lenten discipline for me. But oh the joy on Easter when the precious alleluias return. Not having something which I love for a while makes me appreciate the alleluias all the more on Resurrection day.
Ciss, that's lovely. For the first few years after I began to see how bad a president Bush would be, I was obsessed with him and Cheney in a way that resulted in negative consequences in my life. A wise person suggested that I pray for them. At first, it was extremely difficult for me to pray for them. I prayed through gritted teeth, but as I continued, the prayers became easier, and although my intense dislike for their policies didn't change, I was no longer obsessed. What was I gaining by my obsession with the two men? I was only harming myself.