16
Oct 2018
0
Some favourite Prayer resources: Part 1
Someone recently asked me for a list of my favourite resources for prayer and liturgy. As I compiled 
them, I started to write little descriptions, or quote passages to demonstrate what I liked so much. In many cases I just wrote out the prayer where the bookmark was left. Here is the first part of what I wrote.
Body Prayer by Pagitt and Prill (USA)
This is an interesting one. Its about moving prayer beyond words and intellect, into our bodies and our practices. Its been helpful in my thinking around how our bodies are part of our worship, and what we do with them, in order to participate in an integrated way. It offers dignified and simple ways for posture and movement to be part of our prayer life, individually and congregationally.
Liturgies for High Days by Dorothy McRae-McMahon (Australia)
This book offers poetic liturgies for the whole Christian year. I confess I’ve not used it much, but I did rely heavily on one section for the General Assembly of the PCANZ in 2016, when I used this affirmation congregationally to begin each day:
We believe that God is present here,
meeting us within our meeting,
speaking into every heart,
offering wisdom for every mind
and breathing hope into every soul.
We believe that, in Christ,
all things are possible
and in the Spirit
all life is being made new.
This we believe.
The Prayer Tree by Leunig (Australia)
I have been really intrigued by Michael Leunig’s spirituality, which while not explicitly Christian, its saturated in Jesus! He has a disarming way of voicing our innermost longings. Take this one:
God help us to find our confession;The truth within us which is hidden from our mind;
The beauty or the ugliness we see elsewhere
But never in ourselves;
The stowaway which is smuggled
Into the dark side of the heart,
Which puts the heart off balance and causes it pain,
Which wearies and confuses us,
Which tips us in false directions and inclines us to destruction,
The load which is not carried squarely
Because it is carried in ignorance.
God help us to find our confession.
Help us across the boundary of our understanding.
Lead us into the darkness that we may find what lies concealed;
That we may confess it towards the light;
That we may carry our truth in the centre of our heart;
That we may carry our cross wisely
And bring harmony into our life and our world.
Amen.
Part two will follow shortly.