Prayer Book

Last night as I prepared for sleep, I prayed about a personal issue that I am finding troubling. I posed the question, "How do I handle this?". Sometime in the night, I heard, "There is a book," and I saw a book. The cover was white and there was no writing upon it.  I also dreamed of a white heart. 

​ Truthfully, I woke muttering, "That was not very helpful." 

Holy One, please excuse my impatience. ​

  

 

For the past two weeks, I have been blessed to lead worship at Little Brown Church in Sunol.  I love that small community

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, and I love 

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driving

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to it on Sunday mornings.  

​Even though Sunol is just off one of the busy traffic corridors that run from Contra Costa county to San Jose, there is still a sense of going to a church in the countryside. 

 

​I can raise my eyes and give thanks for hills, grass, oak trees, and hay fields. As ​

I have created 

​the ​

services, I have been perusing prayer books that I have accumulated over the years, including 

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The Book of Common Prayer, 

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copyright

​ 1994. It is a very formal, beautifully illustrated Anglican prayer book that I happened to find in a street corner trash bin (a couple of pages are marked and another torn, but otherwise it is in fine condition). The print is small, and the King James translation does not really speak to me, but I treasure the book's beauty.  Sometimes, there is comfort to be found in simply holding a prayer book.   

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Many of you have inquired about my own writings. I have been content to leave them in email and blog form up until now, partly I am somewhat lazy and partly because I have never been interested in writing a book about spirituality.  There are many fine ones available written by people who can write in complete sentences. I am also not interested in writing about how to age gracefully because the only answer I have is that sometimes we do and sometimes we don't, but regardless of how we make our way, God is with us. The sooner we realize and accept this divine love and guidance, the better. Therefore, I think if I have been writing anything, I have been writing a devotional.  No, I have not a clue about how to go about condensing and transforming more than eight years worth of musings and prayers into a book of devotions, but I must assume the way will be made clear. I continue to rely upon your prayers and suggestions. Please know I am grateful for you.  Also, I humbly ask that you visit my blog periodically.  It could use the company, and I think publishers like to think someone is already reading your work.  

With my usual sense of trepidation, I close with a prayer from The New Women Included, a Book of Services and Prayers from the St. Hilda Community, and I give thanks.   

 

​God, Lover of us all, most holy one, 

help us to respond to you, 

to create what you want for us here on earth. 

Give us today enough for our needs; 

forgive our weak and deliberate offences, 

just as must forgive others when they hurt us. 

Help us to resist evil and to do what is good; 

for we are yours, 

endowed with your power to make us whole. 

Amen​

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