Category: Iona

Iona healing prayer

11/6/2023

Spirit of the Living God, present with us now,
Enter you, body, mind and spirit,
And heal you of all that harms you,
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
     This prayer for the laying-on of hands from the Iona Abbey Worship Book is one of my go-to intercessory prayers. It is offered at A Service of  Prayer for Healing every Tuesday at the Abby, with everyone participating in the laying on of hands, but it satisfies personal prayer, as well.
I pray this prayer every morning. It clears me of
judgments or of telling God how help and healing 'should' go. That's not to say that I never pray for specific outcomes but  truth be told, I really don' know how things should go, and when I do think I know, very likely I'm off track. The phrase, 'Let Go, let God,' fits well here. Try the prayer.

Iona prayer

4/13/2023

This prayer was sent to me from the Iona Prayer Circle for a particular young man we were praying for. I offer it as a template for you to adapt for you own prayer needs.

Spirit of the Living God, pour your blessing on _______ so that he/she knows your presence with him. May your love gently turn his fears to trust, and your peace be in his soul. Bless his journey for the healing he needs, enlighten his path so that he meets those who will aid him. May your grace be seen in him, and his gifts come to fulfillment. In Jesus name we pray. Amen

The reappearance of Rublev's Holy Trinity icon in my life

2/6/2023

This morning I listened to Br. Curtis’ sermon ‘Andrei Rublev, Opening the Eyes of Our Hearts,’ today’s SSJE’s selection of Brother, Give us a Word.’
I have had a long personal relationship with The Trinity, written by Rublev. Here is my picture history.
Every morning during my prayer time, I am inspired by this canvas piece that my son-in-law found at a yard sale.
www.ssje.org/2019/01/29/andrei-rublev-opening-the-eyes-of-our-hearts-br-curtis-almquist/

Every morning during my prayer time, I am inspired by this canvas piece that my son-in-law found at a yard sale.

When I was on Iona last July (2022), I walked into the abby and was greeted by this icon resting against the altar. Upon closer look I was in awe to notice that the Christ was black.

The next day the icon had moved (or was moved) to the Quiet Corner. The following day to another spot in corner. I wonder where it is now!

Last Friday, while visiting the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, I came across this one.

On Saturday a friend send me this photo that she had taken in May on Iona.

And today, Br. Curtis’ message along with the icon ‘written by departed Brother Eldridge Pendleton.

Brother Curtis asks, ‘What do you know about being visited by a messenger of God?’ That is what I am praying on as I sit with this icon that spans the years from Abraham and before and from now to eternity, and keeps appearing in my life.

Jesus' healing ministry

8/1/2022

Every Tuesday evening at the Iona Abby is the Service of Healing. Although I missed it this year, healing was the center of my time on the island. I met a mom and dad and their son 12 year old son who had had intensive surgery on his legs—the first wasn’t successful, the second they are hopeful is working. For me, talking with this mom deepened my faith in prayer. Not just deepened it, but raised it to a new level of belief.
According to Morton Kelsey, one fifth of the narrative portraits in the four gospels is about healing by Jesus and his followers. What was Jesus showing us? That healing is real— not just for back in his times, but is for us now. What does this mean for me, who knows and has come to believe that I am called to pray for people? In following Jesus, how can you and I be healers? We mainline Protestant are missing the opportunity of a lifetime-no pun intended.

Disciplined grace on Iona

7/24/2022

It is easier, one would think, to pray on Iona than in my backyard or in the Angel Room at home. I believe this is so. At least here on the island the physical surroundings and the time is right. Even in the rain and mist, I know God is here in this liminal place. My time is open to pray, even when I’m eating delicious meals prepared by someone else.
But as Richard Foster writes in Celebration of Discipline, “We must always remember that the path does not produce change; it only places us where the change can occur. This is path of disciplined grace.” I can come to Iona to ‘walk around with God,’ only to find myself tapping into the news or fretting about this and that in my life. OR, I can come here and choose to walk the path of disciplined grace. It is God grace that has enabled me to come here; it is up to me to discipline myself to embrace this grace and walk around with God.

What if everyone prayed for peace?

2/13/2019

I am one of the many (at least 100, maybe 200) intercessors with the Iona Community Prayer Circle. Every two months I receive the prayer requests for Group One, the group to which I am assigned. There are twelve groups and approximately 12 requests per group.

    I am also one of thirteen intercessors (from all over the world) who have agreed to receive emergency requests that come into the head office in Glasgow and can’t wait until the next group mailing.
    Over the years we have become prayer friends, praying for needs that go beyond the Community requests, namely for our friends and families and sometimes for ourselves. It is heartwarming to receive the different words that someone from Australia or Scotland use to ask God for help or give God thanks.
    Recently an intercessor from England offered this: I am getting somewhat elderly (85) and have mobility problems so am no longer able to play an active part in church/community life, and feel that intercession is a small offering I can still make.

      As far as I am concerned, this is no small offering. It may be one of the most consequential and vital ways an older person (in fact, anyone) can contribute to peace and love in the world. What if everyone prayed for peace?

Iona, the thin space~

6/16/2016

Iona, the thin space. I felt it my first visit here twenty years ago, and I felt it today at the same spot along to road to the Machair, among the same family of sheep.
Here’s what I wrote in 1996.
I walk along, the wind gently breathing upon a hovering medley of clouds. Stopping along the gravel road, lined on either side by sheep, I startle myself by saying out loud, perhaps to those sheep or to myself, perhaps to the universe or to God, “Life is simple; all we need to do is to love each other.” For the moment I am standing in the ‘thin place’, that liminal space between heaven and earth, between time and eternity. I am in the presence of God.

I knew I had come again to that liminal space, that thin space between heaven and earth. I knew by the silence that was God, who was and is and always will be beyond words. I couldn’t think of a thing; I knew there was nothing worth saying other than to love everyone. God was in my heart where love is, where all is simple.

This year's first visit to Iona Abbey~

6/15/2016

Very grateful to be on Iona. I spent an hour in the quiet corner of the abbey this afternoon. At five o’clock the tourists are on their way to the ferry and those preparing for the evening service have not yet appeared. Very grateful for this time.

Iona intention~

6/11/2016

Next Wednesday I will take the little ferry from Mull to Iona for a week’s pilgrimage on the island. I will close the door to the many of the details of my everyday life so I can open myself to being in God’s presence. But like the woman in the painting, the door won’t be shut tight. Through prayer I will be present to family and friends.

I Have Seen the Lord

12/20/2015

A poem sent to me by dear friends in England. Friends I first met on Iona.

I Have Seen the Lord
Where the mist rises from the sea
Where the waves creep upon the shore
Where the wrack lifts upon the strand,
            I have seen the Lord.

Where the sun awakens the day
Where the road winds on its way
Where the fields are sweet with hay
           I have seen the Lord.

Where the stars shine in the sky
Where the streets so peaceful lie
Where the darkness is so nigh
          I have seen the Lord.

The Lord is here
The Lord is there
The Lord is everywhere
The lord is high
The lord is low
The Lord is on the path I go.