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Click HERE for downloadable pdf of Pastor Julie’s Prayers Adapted from Every Moment Holy

Prayers Adapted from Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey

Pastor Julie will reference this in the sermon.  Consider taking on prayer, writing it on a notecard, and carrying it with you for a week.  When that thing happens to you, pause, pull out the notecard, and use it as an opportunity for prayer.  You could also consider writing your own prayer for something that happens to you on a regular basis.  With children, many of these things: hearing music, hearing a bird, seeing a flower, etc., could be used as a challenge to remember to just say “thank you, God!”

 Upon randomly thinking of another person

God, as I hold ________ a moment in my thoughts, I ask that you would hold them eternally in yours, remaining every at work in their heart and life, even now directing their paths toward your good ends.

 Upon being moved by a piece of music

Tune my heart, my mind, my life, to voice your melodies, O God.

 Upon hearing birdsong

You draw praise from the frailest of things.  So also draw praise from me.

 Upon sighting a flower in bloom

O Lord who so lavishly adorns the fields, who radiant must your eternal glories be!

 Upon an unexpected sighting of wildlife

O Christ who sustains all wild creatures, care also for me, your child.

 A liturgy for waiting in line

Be present in my waiting, O Lord,

That I might also be present in it

As a Christ-bearer to those before and behind me, who also wait.

 As I am a vessel, let me not be like a sodden paoer cup, full of steaming frustration, carelessly sloshing unpleasantness on those around me.

Rather let me be like a communion chalice,

Reflecting the slivered beauty of your light, brimming with an offered grace.  Amen.

 For the washing of windows

Christ, whose light illumines our deep shadows, whose glowing grace seeks out the cobwebbed corners of our souls, whose luminous and loving presence fills all surrendered spaces so that warmth and radiance abound, meet us now in the washing of windows.

As we labor to cleanse glass pans for grimes smeared and blearing, call us to consider, O Lord of light, the same work of your Word and of tyour Spirit, ever cleansing our hearts, our inclinations, our habits, of such stain as would block the passage of your light through our lives.  Met us now, O Lord, in the washing of windows.

 For the changing of diapers

Ah, Lord, what a mess we sometimes make of our lives!  What a tragic comedy is even our most sincere attempt to merit righteousness on our own.  We are no more able to render ourselves holy than is this infant to keep itself unsoiled.  I am as dependent upon your grace and your own righteousness, O Christ, to justify and make me clean, as this little one is dependent upon me to wash the residue of filth from its skin, wrapping it again in soft an freshly0alundered garments.  Let me not be frustrated by the constant repetition of this necessary act on behalf of a child. Rather, let the daily doing of this be a reminder to me, of the constant cleansing and covering of my own sin, that I—helpless as this babe and more often in need—enjoy in the active mercies of Christ.

 For stargazing

Awaken our hearts now to beat in rhythm to the dance of your creation.  Tune our ears to hear the songs of stars in their trillion-fold choruses, bearing witness to your glory, your power….O Spirit of God, draw praise from us, here in this cathedral of creation, beneath this starry dome.  Awaken our adoration in this place, where we are so very small—and yet so greatly loved.

For gardening

As we co-labor with you and with your creation to produce a beneficial harvest, may we find in such toil a kind of rest.  May this plot of ground become a hallowed space and these hours sacred time for reflection, for conversation with friends and family, and for fellowship with you, our creation.

 Fleeting irritation

I bring to you, Lord, my momentary irritation, that you might reveal the buried seed of it—not in the words or actions of another person, but in the withered and hypocritical expectations of my own small heart.  Uproot from this impoverished soil all arrogance and insecurity that would prompt me to dismiss or disdain others, judging them with a less generous measure than I reckon when judging myself.  Prune away the tangled growth of my own unjustified irritations, Jesus, and graft to my heart instead your humility, your compassion, your patience, your kindness, that I might bear good fruit in keeping with your grace.

 After a nightmare, or when you can’t sleep

I am in need of your comfort, O God.

I need your light.

Father, keep watch.  Spirit, calm fear.  Jesus, be near.

Your presence abides with your children forever, and I am your child, therefore I know you are with me.

I am not alone.  I am never alone.  You are here.
Father, keep watch.  Spirit, calm fear.  Jesus, be near.

Or, write your own for any situation in your life!

If you try any of this, Pastor Julie would LOVE to hear about it!!! 😊