Friday 19 September 2014

20 September 2014

Collects

Prayers developed from the daily readings 


Saturday 20 September 2014 
Morning Prayer

Psalm 48

This psalm is a celebration of Jerusalem, as the City of God made grand, awesome and terrifying by the obvious presence of God.

Nahum 1: 1 – 14

Nahum proclaims that the Lord, slow to anger will act on those who are adversaries. God will protect those who take refuge with God. The oppressors will be cut off from their strength and their name will have no more worth.

Matthew 6: 5 – 15

Jesus says when we pray do it not for external praise but quietly behind a closed door. Keep it simple and use the pray out Lord gave us. Forgive others their trespasses and God will also forgive us. If we fail to forgive, so God will not forgive us.

Collect for Morning Prayer

Door of the Tabernacle
New Norcia Benedictine Community
WA 2014 L Osburn

Awesome and amazing God, your power is beyond our understanding yet your love for us is so gentle that all we need to do is pray quietly to you. Open our hearts to you. Help us pray your prayer, meaning every word, and forgive those who owe us something, have trespassed on us or have sinned against us so that we may feel your forgiveness and your secure refuge through Jesus Christ who died for us. Amen.



Saturday 20 September 2014
Evening Prayer

Psalm 49

This psalm uses a riddle to teach wisdom. Everyone dies the rich and the poor. Wealth is nice. Seeking wealth can take our focus from God. God will ransom the souls of the faithful.

2 Maccabees 6: 18 – 31

Eleazar, a scribe who is very old dies a noble and courageous death as an example to the young people. He is forced to eat pork by the oppressors or be beaten to death. Fellow Jews have to administer this process. They give him the opportunity to get meat from his home so that he may look like he eats the meat provided and therefore can be spared. He chooses not to let people think that at the end he went over to an alien religion. He wants to be an example of someone who keeps the laws and to die a good death. As he dies he proclaims how glad he is to suffer for he reveres God.

Ephesians 4: 1 – 16

Paul encourages the people toward Christian maturity. We are to lead lives that are worthy of our calling: “with humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (v.3). We are to hold to the core components of our faith: one body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one God of all. We have different gifts and abilities and different roles to play. We are not to be tossed about by novel ideas but to speak truth in love but steadily grow into Christ.

Collect for Evening Prayer

Dusk Armadale WA
2014 L Osburn
Holy God, you call us to lives with you in unity with the Spirit and in bonds of peace. Be with us now and help us reflect on our day. Open our hearts to see the choices we made today that were worthy of our calling. Help us to recognise and celebrate those actions of your Holy Spirit in our lives and guide us to do the same and more tomorrow so that we take another step toward you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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