Holy Spirit

Spirit, breathe your story of truth into ours

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Geralt via Pixabay
 
Truth-telling, wind-blowing, life-giving spirit –
    we present ourselves now
        for our instruction and guidance;
    breathe your truth among us,
        breathe your truth of deep Friday loss,
            your truth of awesome Sunday joy.
 
Breath your story of death and life
    that our story may be submitted to your will for life.
We pray in the name of Jesus risen to new life –
        and him crucified.
 
Walter Brueggemann, 1933 -2025,  American Protestant Old Testament theologian
Prayers for a Privileged People
 
________________________________
 
 
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. 
He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, 
    and he will tell you what is yet to come. 
He will glorify me because it is from me
    that he will receive what he will make known to you. 
All that belongs to the Father is mine. 
That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.
 

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Prayer for renewal

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image by Bill Kasman, CC BY-SA 2.0

 
Comfortable and well-worn are my daily paths
    whose edges have grown gray
    with constant use.
My daily speech is a collection of old words
    worn down at the heels 
    by repeated use.
My language and deeds, addicted to habit,
    prefer the taste of old wine,
    the feel of weathered skin.
Come and awaken me, Spirit of the new.
Come and refresh me, Creator of green life.
Come and inspire me, Risen Son,
    you who make all things new:
    I am too young to be dead,
    to be stagnant in spirit.
High are the walls that guard the old,
    the tried and secure ways of yesterday
    that protect me from the dreaded plague,
    the feared heresy of change.
For all change is a danger to the trusted order,
    the threadbare traditions that are maintained
    by the narrow ruts of rituals.
Yet how can an everlastingly new covenant
    retain its freshness and vitality
    without injections of the new,
    the daring, and the untried?
Come, O you who are ever-new,
    wrap my heart in new skin,
    ever flexible to be reformed by your Spirit.
Set my feet to fresh paths this day:
    inspire me to speak original and life-giving words
    and to creatively give shape to the new.
Come and teach me how to dance with delight
    whenever you send a new melody my way.
 
Edward Hays, 1931-2016, Catholic Priest in the Archdiocese of Kansas City
 
__________________________
 
 
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. 
Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out 
    and the wineskins will be ruined.  
No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

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to sweep out the corners

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Louis Henri de Fontenay
 
 
God, we come
with hesitant steps
and uncertain motives
to sweep out the corners
where sin has accumulated,
and uncover the ways
we have strayed from Your truth.
 
Expose the empty and barren places
where we don’t allow you to enter.
Reveal our half-hearted struggles
where we have been indifferent
to the suffering of others.
 
Nurture the faint stirrings of new life,
where your spirit has begun to grow.
Let your healing light transform us
into the image of Your Son.
For You alone can bring new life
and make us whole.
 
Christine Sine, Australian physician and contemplative activist
 
_______________________________
 
 
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

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Grace to interpret the Scriptures

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We implore you, Father of the only-begotten, 
    Lord of the universe,
        the one who has crafted all creatures,
        the maker of things that have been made.
 
We stretch out clean hands, 
    and we unfold our thoughts to you, Lord.
Have compassion, spare, benefit, improve and multiply us 
    in virtue, faith and knowledge.
 
Visit us, O Lord.
We display our own weaknesses to you.
Have mercy and pity on us all.
Lift up this people, and make us gentle and sober-minded.
Cleanse us and set us apart to worship you rightly.
 
Send your Holy Spirit into our minds
    and give us grace to learn the Scriptures
    and to properly interpret their meaning,
        that others may be encouraged 
  through your only-begotten Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit,
    through whom and to you be glory and strength
    both now and to all the ages of the ages, Amen.
 
Serapion Scholasticus, 300-360, Egyptian Monk and Bishop
 
__________________________________
 
 
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

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O Lord, in prayer . . .

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Charles Haddon Spurgeon, via Wikimedia Commons
 
O Lord, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, 
    and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs 
        over all evils on the shores of mortality. 
Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments 
    never appears so inconsiderate as then.

In prayer I see myself as nothing; 
I find my heart going after You with intensity, 
    and long with vehement thirst to live to You. 
Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit 
    that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.

In prayer all things here below vanish, 
    and nothing seems important 
        but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.

In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, 
    and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.

In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts 
    at what You are doing for Your church, 
  and I long that You should get Yourself a great name 
    from sinners returning to Zion.

In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, 
    and taste heavenly joys; 
  entering into the eternal world I can give myself to You with all my heart, 
    to be Yours for ever.

In prayer I can place all my concerns in Your hands, 
    to be entirely at Your disposal, 
        having no will or interest of my own.

In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, 
    Your kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, 
        as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.

Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying..
 
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1834-1892, English Baptist Preacher
 
______________________
 
 
 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing

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Stretch forth Your hand to us

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Jesus Walks on Water, c. 1684, Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib, Wikimedia Commons

 
O Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior 
Stretch forth Your hand to us who are tossed about in this world 
    as You did to Peter sinking in the sea, 
    and with Your strength fortify us against the devil 
    who fights against us. 
Feed us with Your indescribable wisdom that governs all creation. 
Kind refuge for the storm-tossed, the one true course, 
    show us the way, and therein will we walk, 
    for we have offered our souls unto You.
Bestow on our foolishness Your spirit of true understanding. 
Bless our every work with the breath of Your greatness, 
    that at all times guided and sustained by Your Holy Spirit 
    we may in all things accomplish Your holy and all-perfect will.
 
Sophrony the Athonite, 1896-1993, Russian-born Orthodox Monk who lived 
 
________________________
 
 
Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 
When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. 
    “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: 
    “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
    “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
    “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 
    “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.
    “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

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prayer to the Holy Spirit

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image, Serbian Monastery, BrankaVV, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

 
 
Good spirit, Holy giver of life . . .  
We are born again in You, created a second time. 
In You is all knowledge, which illuminates our minds 
    so that we might see the Lord, our Savior. 
In Him is life, wisdom, beyond words, 
    knowledge that surpasses the senses, 
    brightness beyond understanding – all life, all power, all glory – 
for He is the God who carries our burdens and forgives us. 
 
Make me entirely Yours. 
Give me life according to Your will. 
Resurrect those parts of me that sin has brought down. 
Enlighten my heart, which is darkened by evil desires, 
   and bring life to my soul, which is dead in its sin. 
Unfurl the threefold mantle of my passions. 
    Have mercy on me in my poverty. 
    Deliver me from every enemy who, from without or within, rises up over me. 
    Deliver me from every evil thing. 
Forgive my reprehensible deeds, and plant your perfect love inside of me.
 
Write your servant’s name in the Book of Life, 
    and give me a good end so that, as I rise victorious over the devil, 
    I might bow confidently before Your kingly throne. 
Make my heart good soil, Lord, and sow it with good seeds. 
Cover me with Your grace like the morning dew, and harvest that which is good: 
    humble prayer, restraint, watchfulness, and tears. 
 
John the Deacon, 15th Century, Orthodox
 
___________________________
 
 
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, 
    for he will not speak on his own authority, 
    but whatever he hears he will speak, 
    and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

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to crave the graces of your Holy Spirit

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image, Gloucestershire, UK via Pexels
 
 
Lord God, you know I need to call on you for my daily bread.
But how much more reason have I to crave the graces of your Holy Spirit –
    for supplying my soul with heavenly food,
    especially with saving faith.
When I am tossed about with the storms of doubts and fears,
    show me how to lay hold of your word and promises.
Then all the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil,
    will never prevail over me, since I know in whom I have believed.
Increase the light of my faith, 
    that it may daily cast forth more clear beams.
Preserve that faith in the darkness of death,
    that it may guide me to eternal life.
And rule and govern me by your Holy Spirit,
    that I may never lose faith by agreeing to do anything
    that is against the light of my conscience.
Confirm the good work you have begun in me,
    strengthen me inwardly, and preserve me blameless 
    until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ,
    that I may inherit eternal life.
Amen.
 
Robert Parker, c. 1564 – 1614, English Puritan minister and scholar
 
___________________________
 
 
That is why I am suffering as I am. 
Yet this is no cause for shame, 
    because I know whom I have believed, 
    and am convinced that he is able to guard 
    what I have entrusted to him until that day.

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Pour Your Spirit on your servants

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image, Cyprus, via Pxhere, CC0 Public Domain
 
Lord God Almighty, no one rules over you.
You always were, and are, and will be. 
You stand in need of nothing.
 
You alone are true, and wise, and most high.
You alone are good, and beyond compare.
Your knowledge is without beginning.
 
You are God and Father of your only begotten Son,
    of our God and Savior, the creator of the whole world by him.
Your providence provides for and takes care of all.
 
Father of mercies, God of all consolation,
    you dwell in the highest heaven, 
        but see us here below.
 
From the beginning, you ordained leaders for your people:
Abel, Seth and Amos. Enoch and Noah. Melchizedek and Job.
Abraham and the rest of the patriarchs, with your faithful servants 
    Moses and Aaron, Eleazer and Phineas …
    who chose rulers and priests in the tabernacle.
 
Pour down the influence of your Spirit.
Grant by your name that your servants whom you have chosen
    may feed your flock, serving you night and day, 
    gathering those who will be saved.
 
May they please you in meekness and pure hearts,
    with steadfast spirits and blameless minds, being above reproach, 
    offering to you a pure sacrifice though Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
 
All glory, honor, and worship be to you in the Holy Spirit,
    now and always, and for all ages, Amen.
 
Apostolic Constitutions, 375-380, Syrian Christian church orders
 
________________________
 
 
Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. 
And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit 
    to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.

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Teach us to pray

/ Eric Mathews / 1 Comment
image via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
 

Lord, teach us to pray.

Some of us are not skilled in the art of prayer.  
As we draw near to you in thought, our spirits long for your Spirit, 
    and reach out for you, longing to feel you near. 
We do not know how to express the deepest emotions 
    that lie hidden in our hearts.

In these moments, we have no polished phrases 
    with which to impress one another, 
    no finely molded, delicately turned clauses to present to you. 
Nor would we be confined to conventional petitions, 
    repeating our prayers like reverent mantras. 
We know, our Father, that we are closest to you 
    when we have left behind 
    the things that have held us captive for so long.

We do not want to be ignorant in prayer and, like children, 
    make shopping lists for you.  
Rather, we pray that you will give unto us only what we really need. 
We do not  want to make our prayers so that they annoy you, 
    an omnipotent God, so that you do what we want you to do. 
Rather, give us the vision, the courage, 
    that enlarges our horizons and stretches our faith 
    to the adventure of seeking your loving will for our lives

We thank you that you are hearing us even now. 
We thank you for the grace of prayer. 
We thank you for yourself.
 
Peter Marshall, 1902 – 1949, Chaplain of the US Senate
HarperCollins Book of Prayers, freely modified
 
____________________________
 
 
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door 
    and pray to your Father, who is unseen. 
Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, 
    will reward you. 
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, 
    for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 
Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need 
    before you ask him.

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