Intercession

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly.

-1 Thessalonians 1:2

There are two traditional forms of Christian prayer. Apophatic prayer has no ‘content,’ and is much like what we’d think of as meditation - sitting in God’s presence, centered in silence, emptying ourselves. Kataphatic prayer has ‘content,’ and is prayed in one of four categories, simply summarized as:

Please

Thank you

Sorry

Wow!

These are otherwise known as intercession or petition, gratitude, confession and praise.

Paul writes to the Thessalonians that he is keeping them in his prayers of gratitude and intercession. It is a powerful thing to pray for others specifically by name, which leads me to a postcard I received from SSJE this week. On the front of the postcard, the founder of the order, Richard Meux Benson (1824-1915) is quoted:

In praying for others we learn really and truly to love them. As we approach God on their behalf we carry the thought of them into the very being of eternal Love, and as we go into the being of him who is eternal Love, so we learrn to love whatever we take with us. there.

Then on the back, the postcard offers a form to pray the Lord’s Prayer that can be used as a personal intercessory prayer:

(where “N.” appears below, substitute the name of the person whom you will hold in prayer)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name in N.,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven for N.
Give N. this day (his/her/their) daily bread.
Forgive N. (his/her/their) sins,
as (he/she/they) forgives those
who sin against him/he/them.
Save N. from the time of trial,
but deliver (him/he/them) from evil.
for the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.

There was no other invitation or explanation on the postcard, but the suggestion was clear, and what a powerful suggestion it is in this time of division in our nation and society. So I pass these words on to all of you, that you might be inspired by this new way to pray for friends, loved ones and even enemies specifically by name in the coming weeks.

The readings we are using this Sunday are HERE. Please note that these are actually the readings assigned for last week. I had invited Geof to speak for Consecration Sunday when we thought it was going to be this Sunday (proper 25). When we moved the date up a week to the 18th, I figured we were recording it in advance, so it wouldn’t matter to Geof when we aired it, but completely didn’t put it together in my mind that moving the date of Consecration Sunday would mean different lectionary readings! Since I only discovered my error when Geof and I got together to record, it seemed right to still use the readings Geof had prepared with. So we used this Sunday last week, and are using the readings for Oct 18 (proper 24) this week. Whoops.