Intercessions
God of love, through Christ you said to us: “You did not choose me but I chose you”. You seek us, you invite us to receive your friendship and abide in it. Teach us to respond more deeply to this invitation, and grow in a life that is ever more complete.
The joy of our heart is in God.
God of life, you call us to be praise in the midst of the world and to welcome one another as a gift of your grace. May your loving gaze, which rests upon each person, open us to receive each other just as we are.
The joy of our heart is in God.
God who gathers, you knit us together as one vine in your Son Jesus. May your loving Spirit abide in us at parish meetings and local ecumenical gatherings. Grant that together we might celebrate you with joy.
The joy of our heart is in God.
God of the one vineyard, you call us to abide in your love in all we do and say. Touched by your goodness, grant us to be a reflection of that love in our homes and workplaces. May we pave the way for bridging rivalries and overcoming tensions.
The joy of our heart is in God.
A time of silence
Very often we think of prayer as something we do, an activity of our own. In this short time we are invited to an interior silence, and to turn aside from all the noise and concerns of our lives and thoughts. In this silence the action belongs to God. We are simply called to abide in God’s love, to rest in him.
I'm circling back around to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which comes to an end on Monday. Why? Because this year the worship materials were prepared by the women of the Monastic Community of Grandchamp, in Switzerland. This is how they describe themselves:
In the 1930s a number of Reformed women from French-speaking Switzerland who belonged to a group known as the “Ladies of Morges” rediscovered the importance of silence in listening to the Word of God. At the same time they revived the practice of spiritual retreats to nourish their life of faith, inspired by the example of Christ who went apart to a lonely place to pray. They were soon joined by others who took part in regularly organized retreats in Grandchamp, a small hamlet near the shores of Lake Neuchâtel. It became necessary to provide a permanent presence of prayer and welcome for the growing number of guests and retreatants.
Today the community has fifty sisters, all women from different generations, church traditions, countries and continents. In their diversity the sisters are a living parable of communion. They remain faithful to a life of prayer, life in community and the welcoming of guests. The sisters share the grace of their monastic life with visitors and volunteers who go to Grandchamp for a time of retreat, silence, healing or in search of meaning.
When Isaac our son, was in his early twenties he made the commitment to spend a year living and working in the now well known Christian monastic community called Taize, in France.While there he heard that another community which followed the Rule of Taize, called Grandchamp, welcomed a man or two to spend time with the sisters to help in the gardens and do other heavier physical labour. He applied, was accepted and spent several months living there in the rhythms of prayer and work. It was a very positive spiritual experience in a beautiful setting. When Isaac married a few years later he and Rebekah spent time in Europe, including a few days at Grandchamp, where they were warmly welcomed.
So, perhaps we can agree that it is a small world, after all.
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