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Iona Prayer Circle

11/8/2011

Iona Abbey

A while ago I wrote about the Iona Prayer Circle that I participate in. Every three months I receive an email from Scotland with updates of the prayer requests for people in my group. I have agreed to pray, in my own particular way, at least once a week (on Tuesday to coincide with the Service for Healing at the Iona Abbey) for the fifteen or so people on my list. I have a commitment between God and myself to pray for these people every day.

“How to do this?” I continually ask myself. I don’t want to lift up a piece of paper with the names and say, “Here God. You know who’s on the list.” I don’t want my mind to wander or pay lip service to each name. Of course this very thing happens, but I keep pulling myself back and trying different ways to connect my heart to God for this intercessory prayer.

Presently I’m considering ways that God might work through me. Here is my current process. First I close my eyes and take a few breaths and picture the person I am praying for standing in a circle of light. Then I imagine God’s spirit breathing through me and washing over the person. For now, it feels like I’m on the right path.

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Iona Prayer Circle continued~

3/22/2011

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I want to finish sharing my thoughts about the Iona Prayer Circle list (see recent posts). The brief explanation after each name describes many issues that people are dealing with out in the world: cancer and other illnesses, young mothers with cancer, young adults with cancer, single mothers, job conflicts, loss of a child, alcoholics, depression among the young and old, loneliness, drug addiction, mental illness, estrangement between a parent and child. You can add your own. So, when I pray the list, I pray for the individuals, and then for others I know (and don’t know) with similar concerns.

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Iona Prayer Circle--continued

3/19/2011

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Clouds over Iona, May 2010

Here’s how I pray for the people on my Iona Prayer Circle section list. I tell you this because I find it helpful to hear how others pray; I figure it might be the same for you. Prayer is so mysterious and really impossible to put into words, but it helps to stumble along with others.
My current list has 23 names, each followed by a few lines of explanation. I close my eyes, and say each name as I visually, as in a cloud, wrap the person in God’s love. I remain with that image, doing my best to keep my mind empty, clear of personal chatter. That is the challenge: to keep the prayer about the person and God, not about me. Then I pray for all those whom I know, and don’t know, who are experiencing similar difficulties. I’ll write about that in my next blog.

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Iona Prayer Circle--continued

3/18/2011

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In yesterday’s post I provided a little background on the Iona Prayer Circle that I participate in. As I explained, when we sign on we agree to pray for the people on our list at least once a week. That, however, didn’t work for me. I’d either forget or my prayers felt unintentional, too rote. But more importantly, they felt disingenuous. I had made the commitment to pray and these folks were counting it, as was apparent from the comments I received: “She continues to value your prayers,” and “She feels to be moving on and thanks everyone who has been praying for her.”
This experience is teaching me that agreeing to pray for someone is serious business for both the giver and the receiver. But t is more than just about the person praying and the person prayed for; it is about the “person” being prayed to, God. For me, prayer is my most powerful spiritual teacher. It holds faith and good works in the same vessel.

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Iona Prayer Circle

3/17/2011

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       I am a member of the Iona Prayer Circle, which means that I have made the commitment to pray at least once a week for about twenty people. Every three months I receive the names, accompanied by a brief description and updates, of those in my prayer section. We are asked to pray in our own particular way at least once a week for these people and it is suggested that we pray on Tuesday evening at 9 PM (wherever we are) because that is the time that the Prayer Circle names are lifted up at the Service of Healing at the abbey on Iona.
           I do my best to make this commitment part of my morning prayer time. Routine helps me. I keep the Iona Prayer Circle list in my prayer book and start with the Iona Worship Prayer.

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

    (In my next post I’ll share some more about this awesome experience.)

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Iona Prayer Circle

Iona Prayer Circle continued~

Iona Prayer Circle--continued

Iona Prayer Circle--continued

Iona Prayer Circle

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