A Liturgy for Domestic Days

by Douglas McKelvey, excerpt:

Many are the things that must be daily done.
Meet me therefore, O Lord,
in the doing of the small, repetitive tasks.

In the cleaning and ordering and

maintenance and stewardship of things—

   of dishes, of floors, of carpets

   and toilets and tubs,

   of scrubbing and sweeping

   and dusting and laundering—

That by such stewardship I might bring

a greater order to my own life,

and to the lives of any I am given to serve,

so that in those ordered spaces 

bright things might flourish:

fellowship and companionship,

creativity and conversation,

learning and laughter

and enjoyment and health.

As I steward the small, daily tasks,

may I remember these good ends,

and so discover in my labors

the promise of the eternal hopes that underlie them. …

And so I offer this small service to you, O Lord,

for you make no distinction between

   those acts that bring a person

   the wide praise of their peers

and those unmarked acts

   that are accomplished in a quiet obedience

   without accolade.

You see instead the heart, the love,

and the faithful stewardship

of all labors, great and small. …

O God, grant that my heart

might be ordered aright,

knowing that all good service

faithfully rendered

is first a service rendered unto you.

Receive then this my service,

that even in the midst of labors that

hold no happiness in themselves,

I might have increasing joy.

Amen.

Voyage

from a book of puritan prayers:

O Lord of the oceans,

My little bark sails on a restless sea,

Grant that Jesus may sit at the helm and steer me safely;

Suffer no adverse currents to divert my heavenward course;

Let not my faith be wrecked amid storms and shoals;

Bring me to harbor with flying pennants,

   hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled.

I ask great things,

   expect great things,

   shall receive great things.

I venture on thee wholly, fully,

   my wind, sunshine, anchor, defence.

The voyage is long, the waves high, the storms pitiless,

   but my helm is held steady,

   thy Word secures safe passage,

   thy grace wafts me onward,

   my haven is guaranteed.

This day will bring me nearer home,

Grant me holy consistency in every transaction,

   my peace flowing as a running tide,

   my righteousness as every chasing wave.

Help me to live circumspectly,

   with skill to convert every care into prayer,

Halo my path with gentleness and love,

   smooth every asperity of temper;

   let me not forget how easy it is to occasion grief;

   may I strive to bind up every wound,

      and pour oil on troubled waters.

May the world this day be happier and better because I live.

Let my mast before me be the Saviour’s cross,

   and every oncoming wave the fountain in his side.

Help me, protect me in the moving sea

   until I reach the shore of unceasing praise.

A Liturgy for First Waking

from Every Moment Holy, by Douglas McKelvey:

I am not the captain of my own destiny,

nor even of this new day, and so

I renounce anew all claim

to my own life and desires.

I am only yours, O Lord.

Lead me by your mercies through these hours,

that I might spend them well,

not in harried pursuit of my own agendas,

but rather in good service to you.

Teach me to shepherd the small duties

of this day with great love,

tending faithfully those tasks

you place within my care

and tending with patience and

kindness the needs and hearts of

those people you place within my reach.

Nothing is too hard for you, Lord Christ.

I deposit now all confidence in you

that whatever these waking hours bring,

my foundations will not be shaken.

At day’s end I will lay me down again to sleep

knowing that my best hope is well kept in you.

In all things your grace will sustain me.

Bid me follow, and I will follow.

Amen.

A Liturgy Before A Meal Eaten Alone

from Every Moment Holy, by Douglas McKelvey:

You created us for companionship,

O God, for the sharing of burdens,

for the joining of celebrations,

for the breaking of bread in fellowship, 

and so it is not unnatural

that we should taste a particular sorrow 

when eating a meal alone.

Sit with me and linger

at this solitary table, O Lord.

Sit with me as my father.

Sit with me as my brother.

Sit with me as my shepherd.

Sit with me as my friend.

In the absence of human companions,

may I know more fully your presence.

In this silence where there is no conversation, 

may I more clearly hear your voice.

Use my own momentary loneliness

to work in me a more effectual sympathy 

for others who are often alone,

and who long for the companionship

of their God and of his people.

Let me afterward be more intentional

in the practice of hospitality.

Let me sometimes be the reason

the loneliness of another is relieved.

Meet me now in my own loneliness, O Lord. 

Meet me in this meal. I receive it as your 

provision for my life in this hour.

Amen.

A Liturgy For Those Flooded By Too Much Information

from Every Moment Holy, by Douglas McKelvey:

In a world so wired and interconnected, 

our anxious hearts are pummeled by

an endless barrage of troubling news.

We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord, 

than we can rightly consider,

of more suffering and scandal

than we can respond to, of more 

hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice 

than we can engage with compassion.

But you, O Jesus, are not disquieted

by such news of cruelty and terror and war. 

You are neither anxious nor overwhelmed. 

You carried the full weight of the suffering 

of a broken world when you hung upon 

the cross, and you carry it still.

When the cacophony of universal distress 

unsettles us, remind us that we are but small 

and finite creatures, never designed to carry 

the vast abstractions of great burdens,

for our arms are too short and our strength 

is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and 

redemption, are your great labors.

And yes, it is your good pleasure to accomplish 

such works through your people,

but you have never asked any one of us

to undertake more than your grace

will enable us to fulfill.

Guard us then from shutting down our empathy 

or walling off our hearts because of the glut of 

unactionable misery that floods our awareness. 

You have many children in many places

around this globe. Move each of our hearts

to compassionately respond to those needs 

that intersect our actual lives, that in all places 

your body might be actively addressing

the pain and brokenness of this world,

each of us liberated and empowered by 

your Spirit to fulfill the small part

of your redemptive work assigned to us.

Give us discernment

   in the face of troubling news reports.

Give us discernment

   to know when to pray, 

   when to speak out, 

   when to act,

   and when to simply 

   shut off our screens 

   and our devices,

   and to sit quietly

   in your presence,

casting the burdens of this world 

upon the strong shoulders

of the one who

   alone

is able to bear them up.

Amen.

Courage, Faith and Hope

from Thomas Merton:

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” 

i thank You God for most this amazing

by e. e. cummings:

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

Our True Home

by Walter Brueggemann

God before and God behind,

God for us and God for your own self,

   Maker of heaven and earth,

      creator of sea and sky,

      governor of day and night.

We give thanks for your ordered gift of life to us,

   for the rhythms that reassure,

   for the equilibriums that sustain,

   for the reliabilities that curb our anxieties.

      We treasure from you,

         days to work and nights to rest.

      We cherish from you,

         days to control and nights to yield.

      We savor from you,

         days to plan and nights to dream.

Be our day and our night,

   our heaven and our earth,

   our sea and our sky,

   and in the end our true home. Amen.

Newton on Grace

from John Newton, The Utterance of the Heart:

“Sensible comforts are desirable, and we must be sadly declined when they do not appear to us; but I believe there may be a real exercise of faith and growth in grace when our sensible feelings are faint and low. A soul may be in as thriving a state when thirsting, seeking, and mourning after the Lord, as when actually rejoicing in Him; as much in earnest when fighting in the valley, as when singing upon the mount; nay, dark seasons afford the surest and strongest manifestations of the power of faith. To hold fast the word of promise, to maintain a hatred of sin, to go on steadfastly in the path of duty, in defiance both of the frowns and the smiles of the world, when we have but little comfort, is a more certain evidence of grace, than a thousand things which we may do or forbear when our spirits are warm and lively.” 

Need Of Grace

from a puritan prayer of prayers

O Lord,

Thou knowest my great unfitness for service,

   my present deadness,

   my inability to do anything for thy glory,

   my distressing coldness of heart.

I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable,

   and loathe and abhor myself.

I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest have me do,

   for I feel amazingly deserted by thee,

   and sense they presence so little;

Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth,

   and the dreadful sin of my nature,

   so that I feel all sin,

   I cannot think or act but every motion is sin.

Return again with showers of converting grace

   to a poor gospel-abusing sinner.

Help my soul to breathe after holiness,

   after a constant devotedness to thee,

   after growth in grace more abundantly every day.

O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness,

And am ready to sink because I fall short of my desire;

Help me to hold out a little longer,

   until the happy hour of deliverance comes,

   for I cannot lift my soul to thee

   if thou of thy goodness bring me not nigh.

Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender,

   lest I offend my blessed Friend

   in thought and behavior;

I confide in thee and lean upon thee,

   and need thee at all times to assist and lead me.

O that all my distresses and apprehensions

   might prove but Christ’s school

   to make me fit for greater service

   by teaching me the great lesson of humility.

Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken

By Henry Lyte, 4th stanza:

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,

Come disaster, scorn and pain

In Thy service, pain is pleasure,

With Thy favor, loss is gain

I have called Thee Abba Father,

I have stayed my heart on Thee

Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;

All must work for good to me.

In The Silence, Name Me

by Ted Loder

Holy One,

   untamed

      by the names

         I give you,

in the silence

   name me,

that I may know

   who I am,

hear the truth

   you have put into me,

trust the love

   you have for me,

      which you call me to live out

         with my sisters and brothers

            in your human family.

Guide Me Into An Unclenched Moment

by Ted Loder

Gentle me,

Holy One,

into an unclenched moment,

   a deep breath,

      a letting go

         of heavy expectancies,

            of shriveling anxieties,

               of dead certainties,

that, softened by the silence,

   surrounded by the light,

      and open to the mystery,

I may be found by wholeness,

   upheld by the unfathomable,

      entranced by the simple,

         and filled with the joy

            that is you.

And Then You

by Walter Brueggemann

We arrange our lives as best we can

to keep your holiness at bay,

with our pieties,

our doctrines,

our liturgies,

our moralities,

our secret ideologies,

Safe, virtuous, settled.

And then you –

you and your dream,

you and your visions,

you and your purposes,

you and your commands,

you and our neighbors.

We find your holiness not at bay,

but probing, pervading,

insisting, demanding.

And we yield, sometimes gladly,

sometimes resentfully,

sometimes late . . . or soon.

We yield because you, beyond us, are our God.

We are your creatures met by your holiness,

by your holiness made our true selves.

And we yield. Amen.

Thoughts In Solitude

by Thomas Merton:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself. And the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in everything I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire and I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” 

I Need to Breathe Deeply

by Ted Loder

Eternal Friend,

grant me an ease

to breathe deeply of this moment,

   this light,

      this miracle of now.

Beneath the din and fury

   of great movements

      and harsh news

         and urgent crises,

make me attentive still

   to good news,

      to small occasions,

         and the grace of what is possible

            for me to be,

               to do,

                  to give,

                     to receive,

that I may miss neither my neighbor’s gift

   nor my enemy’s need.

Lead Me Out of My Doubts and Fears

by Ted Loder

Eternal God,

lead me now

   out of the familiar setting

      of my doubts and fears,

   beyond my pride

      and my need to be secure

into a strange and graceful ease

   with my true proportions

      and with yours;

that in boundless silence

   I may grow

      strong enough to endure

         and flexible enough to share

            your grace.

Vain Service

O my Lord,

Forgive me for serving thee in sinful ways—

   by glorying in my own strength,

   by forcing myself to minister through necessity,

   by accepting the applause of others,

   by trusting in assumed grace 

      and spiritual affection

   by a faith that rests upon my hold on Christ, 

      not on him alone,

   by having another foundation to stand upon beside thee;

      for thus I make flesh my arm.

Help me to see

   that it is faith stirred by grace that does the deed,

   that faith brings a man nearer to thee,

      raising him above mere man,

   that thou dost act upon the soul

      when thus elevated and lifted out of itself,

   that faith centres in thee as God all-sufficient,

      Father, Son, Holy Spirit,

      as God efficient,

      mediately, as in thy commands and promises,

      immediately, in all the hidden power

         that faith sees and knows to be in thee,

      abundantly, with omnipotent effect,

         in the revelation of thy will.

If I have not such faith I am nothing.

Hear Me Quickly, Lord

by Ted Loder

Hear me quickly, Lord,

for my mind soon wanders to other things

     I am more familiar with

          and more concerned about

               than I am with you.

O Timeless God, for whom I do not have time,

catch me with a sudden stab of beauty

     or pain

          or regret

that will catch me up short for a moment

to look hard enough at myself—

     the unutterable terror

          and hope within me

and, so, to be caught by you.

Gather Me To Be With You

by Ted Loder

O God, gather me now

to be with you

as you are with me.

Soothe my tiredness;

quiet my fretfulness;

curb my aimlessness;

relieve my compulsiveness;

let me be easy for a moment.

O Lord, release me

from the fears and guilts

which grip me so tightly;

from the expectations and opinions

which I so tightly grip,

that I may be open

to receiving what you give,

to risking something genuinely new,

to learning something refreshingly different.

O God, gather me

to be with you

as you are with me.

Amen.