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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