Today – fast & prayer

In this season of advent, of expectation, we at Shalom House are feeling the expectation of new community members.  We are feeling the burden of the longing for Peacemaking efforts to be multiplied among us.  Out of a house meeting several weeks ago, we decided a day of prayer and fasting would be appropriate.  We would like to invite you to join us, next Tuesday, in our efforts to continually focus on God, to wait for His leading and listen for His guidance.

We will be fasting from food, however if for health or other reasons you are unable, please feel free to chose another thing to fast from.  You are invited to join us for a time of prayer in the morning, at our house, at 7 am.  Below we have included three meditations to use throughout the day.  Times included are suggestions, but please feel free to pray as you are able.  As we go throughout our separate activities that day, we hope that we will take time to be together in spirit, as the Church, to center on God and his continual provision.

Thank you for your love and your support.

Shalom House Day of Prayer and Fasting – Tues. Dec. 22, 2009

The Discipline of Fasting
From Richard Foster’s Treasury of Christian Discipline

“The central idea in fasting is the voluntary denial of an otherwise normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity.  There is nothing wrong with any normal life-functions; it is simply that there are times when we set them aside in order to concentrate.”

“Fasting must forever center on God.  It must be God-initiated and God-ordained. Physical benefits, success in prayer, the enduing with power, spiritual insights –these must never replace God as the center of our fasting.”

“Fasting reminds us that we are sustained ‘by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’  Food does not sustain us; God sustains us.  Fasting helps us keep our balance in life.  How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives.  How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved to them.”

Morning Prayer – 7 am

Opening
One thing I have asked of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life;
to behold the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his Temple.

Meditation
“Our vocation is to belong to Jesus so completely that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.  What you and I must do is nothing less than putting our love for Christ into practice.  The important thing is not how much we accomplish, but how much love we put into our deeds every day.  That is the measure of our love for God.” – Mother Theresa

Prayers for others

Canticle
Christ, as a light
Illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
Overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
On my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
Lowely and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
This day be within and without me,
Lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
On my left and my right.

Blessing
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
Protect you through the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you.
May be bring you home rejoicing once again into our door.

Amen.

Midday Prayer – 12 pm

Opening
Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.
Establish Thou the work of our hands;
Establish Thou the work of our hands.

Canticle
Teach us, dear Lord, to number our days;
That we may apply our hearts into wisdom.
Oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy,
That we may rejoice and be glad all of our days.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us;
And establish Thou the work of our hands.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us;
and establish Thou the work of our hands, dear Lord.

Silence

Meditation
“I do not tire of telling everyone, especially young people who long for their people’s liberation,
that I admire their social and political sensitivity, but it saddens me when they waste it by going
on ways that are false. Let us, too, all take notice that the great leader of our liberation is the
Lord’s Anointed One, who comes to announce good news to the poor, to give freedom to the
captives, to give news of the missing, to give joy to so many homes in mourning, so that society
may be renewed as in the sabbatical years of Israel.”—Oscar Romero

Blessings
Let nothing disturb thee, Nothing affright thee, all things are passing.
God never changeth!
Patient endurance attaineth to all things; who God possesseth in nothing is wanting;
alone God Sufficeth.

Amen.

Evening Prayer – 6 pm

My soul waits for the Lord
More than those
who watch for the morning,
more than those
who watch for the morning.

I will wait for the Lord.
My soul waits, and in His word
do I hope.

Expression of faith
Lord, You have always given
bread for the coming day;
and though I am poor, today I believe.

Lord, You have always given
strength for the coming days;
and though I am weak, today I believe.

Lord, You have always given
peace for the coming days;
and though of anxious heart, today I believe.

Lord, You have always spoken
when time was ripe;
and though you be silent now, today I believe.

Meditation
“Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end, all of his disciples deserted him. On the cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evil doers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life, but in the thick of foes.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Prayer for others

Blessing
See that ye be at peace among yourselves, my children,
and love one another.
Follow the example of good [people] of old
And God will comfort you and help you,
Both in this world
and in the world which is to come.

Amen.

Excerpts from Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community