Christian Prayer
To the Father
Through the Son
In the Spirit

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Mark 1:35-39
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

**Notice how Jesus is grounded in his identity and mission by retreating to prayer early in the morning.

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Luke 10:38-42
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

**We need a liturgy/habit/rhtyhm of the one thing.

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John 6:35
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

**Is Jesus as real to you as bread?

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Perhaps you're doing okay without prayer because you're not doing much with your life?
Or perhaps you're one crisis away from collapse?

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A MORNING LITURGY

ADDRESS
Father God, creator of heaven and earth,
God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
True and Living God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Have mercy and hear our prayer.

PSALM 103:1-5 (NIV)
Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

LORD’S PRAYER EXPANDED
(after each line, pause and connect the line to your own life and our world today)
Our Father, in heaven,
Hallowed be your Name;
Your kingdom come;
Your will be done
on earth, as it is in heaven:
Give us today our daily bread;
And forgive us our sins,
as we forgive them that sin against us;
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil:
For Yours is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.

ASK (make your requests to God)

SILENCE (1-5 minutes)

PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS (this is to send you out into your day)
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.


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“Prayer has far more to do with what God wants to do in us than with our trying to "reach" or "realize," still less entertain," God in prayer. This truth eliminates anxiety and concern as to the success or non-success of our prayer, for we can be quite certain that, if we want to pray and give the time to prayer, God is always successful and that is what matters.
RUTH BORROWS, ESSENCE OF PRAYER

We close our eyes in prayer and open them in the pristine moment of creation. We open our eyes to find God, his hands still smeared with clay, hovering over us, breathing into us his own divine life, smiling to see in us a reflection of himself.
We go to our place of prayer confident that in prayer we transcend both place and time.”
JAMES FINLEY, MERTON'S PALACE OF NOWHERE