Blog Archives

St. Giles Cathedral~

5/30/2013

I feel I’ve neglected my prayer diary blog and so I apologize. My time in Edinburgh has been a whirl, with little time to write, and, I must confess, little time to pray.

     One of my favorite places for prayer, however, is St. Giles Church on the Royal Mile between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It was the church of John Knox during the time of Mary Queen of Scots.

According to the church website: “Also known as the High Kirk of Edinburgh, it is the Mother Church of Presbyterianism and contains the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle (Scotland's chivalric company of knights headed by the Queen).”

    I love all the old in the church, but I also love the new, particularly the stained glass windows. This is a living church, contemporary in art and in its teachings of God’s word. I love that St Giles was a hermit (7th century) who later became abbot of the church, “who lived in France, became the patron of both town and church was probably due to the ancient ties between Scotland and France.”

Praying my way through Scotland~

5/25/2013

Today I’m packing for trip to Scotland tomorrow. I have some lovely plans: Edinburgh for five nights, Oban for three, and the Isle of Iona for seven. I go alone and walk around with God. That’s how I think of it and that’s what happens. I never know quite what will come up, what adventures I’ll have, what will stand out as important. I don’t look for disappointment; I look for miracles and that’s what I find.

Beginning a prayer shawl~

5/23/2013

I started a new prayer shawl yesterday. I bought the yarn and needles the day before but waited until the following morning, when I was alert, when the house was silent, to begin. There are many suggested rituals for beginning a new shawl, but I knew that too many would distract me from my desire for purposeful prayer. Silence, solitude and simplicity is the only setting that I need.

Calm down, take some deep breaths, clear the mind of chatter. Ask God the Creator to work among my fingers and the yarn; call on Jesus to walk with the people I’m praying for; invoke the Holy Spirit to be with me during this ministry time.

Prayer shawls~

5/22/2013

I’ve started knitting prayer shawls again. A while back I knit shawls for Sarah, Sally and Edie to wrap around themselves and their cancer. My friends are no more, which is often the way it is with prayer shawls: you knit, pray for healing, knit, pray for acceptance, knit, pray for a peaceful passing. For family and friends the shawl remains because the prayer goes on.

       The shawl I made for my friend Sarah is around her husband’s shoulders every morning during his meditation time. I don’t know about the other two; I don’t need to know. I trust that they are just where they are meant to be. Two friends have made me shawls: one for my birthday, the other when my mother died. I can feel the prayer that they knit with every stitch.

      I’m amazed at how knitting has deepened my prayer time. I picked up a shawl that I started five years ago, and started knitting, knit three, pearl three, and started praying, a row for each person on my top ten prayer list. Just one of the many ways to do it. Others will evolve.

      If you need suggestions, prayers, patterns, encouragement, check out http://www.shawlministry.com/ As I mentioned on my cottage by the sea blog, knitting prayer shawls embraces silence, solitude and simplicity.

Prayers for acceptance~

5/21/2013

The other day I attended a retirement party for a teacher friend. Many heartfelt things were said. In fact, no one has every uttered an unkind word about her, because what would there be to say against this rare spirit? But then there is her cancer, which has reoccurred. What is there to say about that? I’ve prayed for healing, cure, peace, wisdom, all of it, and I will continue to do so. But now prayers for acceptance and serenity are taking over. God is always willing. Are we?

Prayer amongst chatter~

5/19/2013

Hard to pray with all the chatter in my life. Good thing, all the family activity. I’m not complaining, just observing.

Starting the day with gratitude~

5/15/2013

Here’s my latest prayer challenge. If it sounds familiar it’s because it’s one of those variations on a theme that I’ve been working on. Yes, it’s about gratitude.

My prayer is that my first thoughts of the day be about gratitude, and thus of God. I want to wake up and think gratitude, but it usually ends up being my second thought, because out of habit, I immediately start planning my day. You know how it is; it probably happens to you. You immediately start figuring out what will be for supper, when you’ll get your car in for an oil change, or worse still, you remember the ‘stupid’ comment you made to someone the day before. So instead of starting the day thinking about God, I start thinking about me. Through prayer, however, I’m doing what I can to change that.

I read somewhere that gratitude activates dopamine, one of the neurotransmitters in brain particularly identified with positive affect. Nothing like encouragement from the scientific community to start the day. But more to the point, gratitude is the bedrock of faith. The Psalmists continually thank God. Paul starts his letters with expressions of gratitude. Jesus commands us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. How can we do that without gratitude? We can’t.

Gratitude journal~

5/13/2013

In 2006 my daughter and grandchildren gave me a ‘journal for your gratitudes’. My daily three-line entries go something like this: first, I write a one-line prayer addressing one of my reoccurring life themes—open my heart, keep me from judging, lead me to pray without ceasing, keep me conscious of Your presence; next, a line of gratitudes—for the sunrise, morning coffee, good health of friends and family, positive world news; finally, an affirmation or truth for me— good begets good, it is hard for me to pray in the evening.

Yesterday, in the place of gratitudes, I began recording what I hear God calling me to do, which, no surprise, is turning out to be more of a challenge than writing what I’m grateful for.* But I figure that if I pray for God’s guidance, I’d better listen to it, and respond. In the short span of two mornings, I’ve heard that I should visit someone for whom I never seem to have time, that I am, once again, being distracted by too much local sports on TV, and that I need to stop complaining that I have to wash the kitchen floor. On it goes, and truthfully I must confess that I don’t always want to hear what God has to say to me. I want the final word. But that’s not what gratitude is all about.

* A year ago, at the back of the journal I started keeping a list of gratitudes; am now up to 1085.

Loving God with all my heart~

5/10/2013

Yesterday during my walk between rain storms I got thinking about the first commandment. You know the one--to love God with all your heart, soul and mind. There I was walking along loving God with all my heart. So easy on a May day with all the flowering bushes; not difficult with the family doing well, and with no health complains. “Is that it?” I asked myself. The commandment goes on, ‘and to love your neighbor as yourself’. Easy-- at that moment I was feeling loving about myself and my heart was pretty open to others. “Is that it?” I asked again. After all, I wasn’t that ecstatic; the peace of God I was feeling wasn’t that overwhelming, nor did it ‘pass all understanding’. I was happy, content, in a good place, but not in that deep God place.

In my heart I know there is nothing superficial about loving God. It’s a full-time job, which takes prayer, grace and confession. Confession to myself about all those little (and big) places that I don’t love, and about all those inadequacies, envies, and regrets. Although my life isn’t burdened with them, they are there, lurking about, ready to pop up. What I don’t like in myself, I project onto others and at that moment all the love vanishes.

So this is big God work, this loving God, loving myself and loving others. They are all of a whole, a trinity. I can’t have one without the other.

Leave it to God~

5/8/2013

What does it mean to ‘leave it to God’? In a given situation, what’s my part? What’s God’s part? Oh, I know it’s not about parceling out the jobs, but that comes to mind, it’s what I’m apt to do.

The other day I was talking with a friend about medical issues, specifically back problems. We agreed that we do what can personally to ease the pain; we decide how to involve the medical world; and we leave it to God. This sounds like a three step process, with God being the last resort, but that’s not our intention. Our faith tells us that God is acting throughout, and so we try to remember to ask God for guidance for all the decisions we make along the way. Nevertheless, after we’ve worked the worldly system of exercise, doctor consultation, and medication, we give it all to God, not as the last resort, but as the most powerful means for healing and peace.