The first of our evening services in the summer interlude in the Octagon was an evening on prayer. Mark invited us to consider and share what we think prayer is and then reflect on our experience of prayer. He suggested a way to remember an easy structure for prayer: tsp for Thank you, Sorry, Please. We all took a teaspoon home to remind us! I’m reading a book about prayer at the moment (A Glimpse of Glory by Gonville French-Beytagh) which mentions all these aspects of prayer. He suggests that thanksgiving and contrition (being sorry) are complementary. When we feel sorry for what we have done we throw ourselves on God’s mercy. Two different Hebrew words for mercy are ‘to be motherly’ and ‘to bend down’. When we say sorry we can imagine God as a mother bending down and forgiving us. Thanksgiving springs from knowing ‘we are totally dependent on God for everything’, just as a young child is dependent on their mother. French-Beytagh suggests sitting down at the end of the day reflecting what has happened, often with thanksgiving and saying sorry. This reminded me of the Ignatian Examen practiced by Jesuits which involves something similar. There is no set prayer for an Examen - just a pattern for prayer and talking to God about all aspects of our lives.
ask God for light
give thanks
review the day
face our shortcomings
look forward to the day to come
Psalm 4:1, 5-8
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.
There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
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