Request for the Presence of Christ

Christ be with me
Christ within me
Christ behind me
Christ before me
Christ beside me
Christ to win me
Christ to comfort and restore me
Christ beneath me
Christ above me
Christ in quiet
Christ in danger
Christ in hearts of all that love me
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger

Jesus for President Litany of Resistance

One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world

All: Have mercy on us

One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world

All: Free us from the bondage of sin and death

One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world

All: Hear our prayer. Grant us peace.

One: For the victims of war

All: Have mercy

One: Women, men and children

All: Have mercy

One: The maimed and the crippled

All: Have mercy

One: The abandoned and the homeless

All: Have mercy

One: the imprisoned and the tortured

All: Have mercy

One: The widowed and the orphaned

All: Have mercy

One: The bleeding and the dying

All: Have mercy

One: The weary and the desperate

All: Have mercy

One: The lost and the forsaken

All: Have mercy

One: O God -- Have mercy on us sinners

All: Forgive us for we know not what we do

One: For our scorched and blackened earth

All: Forgive us

One: For the scandal of billions wasted in war

All: Forgive us

One: For our arms makers and arms dealers

All: Forgive us

One: For our Caesars and Herods

All: Forgive us

One: For the violence that is rooted in our hearts

All: Forgive us

One: For the times we turn others into enemies

All: Forgive us

One: Deliver us, O God

All: Guide our feet into the way of peace

One: Hear our prayer.

All: Grant us peace.

One: From the arrogance of power

All: Deliver us

One: From the myth of redemptive violence

All: Deliver us

One: From the tyranny of greed

All: Deliver us

One: From the ugliness of racism

All: Deliver us

One: From the cancer of hatred

All: Deliver us

One: From the seduction of wealth

All: Deliver us

One: From the addiction of control

All: Deliver us

One: From the idolatry of nationalism

All: Deliver us

One: From the paralysis of cynicism

All: Deliver us

One: From the violence of apathy

All: Deliver us

One: From the ghettos of poverty

All: Deliver us

One: From the ghettos of wealth

All: Deliver us

One: From a lack of imagination

All: Deliver us

One: Deliver us, O God

All: Guide our feet into the way of peace

One: We will not conform to the patterns of this world

All: Let us be transformed by the renewing of our minds

One: With the help of God’s grace

All: Let us resist evil wherever we find it

One: With the waging of war

All: We will not comply

One: With the legalization of murder

All: We will not comply

One: With the slaughter of innocents

All: We will not comply

One: With laws that betray human life

All: We will not comply

One: With the destruction of community

All: We will not comply

One: With the pointing finger and malicious talk

All: We will not comply

One: With the idea that happiness must be purchased

All: We will not comply

One: With the ravaging of the earth

All: We will not comply

One: With principalities and powers that oppress

All: We will not comply

One: With the destruction of peoples

All: We will not comply

One: With the raping of women

All: We will not comply

One: With governments that kill

All: We will not comply

One: With the theology of empire

All: We will not comply

One: With the business of militarism

All: We will not comply

One: With the hoarding of riches

All: We will not comply

One: With the dissemination of fear

All: We will not comply

One: Today we pledge our ultimate allegiance… to the Kingdom of God

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To a peace that is not like Rome’s

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the Gospel of enemy love

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the Kingdom of the poor and broken

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To a King that loves his enemies so much he died for them

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the least of these, with whom Christ dwells

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the transnational Church that transcends the artificial borders of nations

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the refugee of Nazareth

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay his head

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the cross rather than the sword

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the banner of love above any flag

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the one who rules with a towel rather than an iron fist

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the one who rides a donkey rather than a war-horse

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the Way that leads to life

All: We pledge allegiance

One: To the Slaughtered Lamb

All: We pledge allegiance

One: And together we proclaim his praises, from the margins of the empire to the centers of wealth and power

All: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb

One: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb

All: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb

By Shane Claiborne with the help of Jim Loney and Brian Walsh

Eucharist Prayer

Come and be here
Steal past my fears
O wounded healer
O humble leader
Show me your hands
Show me your side
O holy victim
O crucified

I will receive you now
I will receive your love
I will believe in you
I will go on with you

Speak to my heart
Bring me your peace
O broken Saviour
O gentle fighter

Breathe on my face
The breath of life
O my Christ let me
Share in your life

Bring to my lips now
Your blood and body
O bread of heaven
O hope of glory
Send me in love
Into the world
O faithful teacher
Wisdom of God

"I Will Receive You Now" - by Doug Gay with Jonny Baker and Proost

Another Prayer for My Enemies

God, there are people who don't like us. There are people down here who don't mind to see us hurt in order to get what they want. It's so hard to pray for them, God. Then again, Jesus just said to do it. He didn't say it would be easy. We all feel like our lives are missing something, God. If there's one thing we have in common, we all ache. Those who hurt us must ache, too. I wonder... Fill their lives, God. Give them what they need. They have hidden pain. Heal them. Forgive them. Then come talk with us and explain how this all works. Amen.

-adapted from The Book of Uncommon Prayer by Steven Case

Prayer for Guidance

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 that 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 all that 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.

- Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude"

Pottery

Be merciful, God. The fire burns. I am just clay. I will crack and fall apart in your hands. I feel hopeless and hungry. I am frightened of the fire and the water. But you are the potter, and I am the clay. Shape me. Remake me. Mold me in a thousand ways, God. I am your servant. I will be a jar full of glorious treasures. Amen.

-from The Book of Uncommon Prayer by Steven Case

Prayer of Cleopas

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.

Wordless

I wish I could capture
This moment;
Put it in a little glass cube

So I could be reminded

All the time

Of the wordless Ecstasy

Of being in Your

Frighteningly holy

Yet

Encompassingly loving

Presence.

Like

Embracing a waterfall

Or

Lying safely between a lion's paws

Or

Sitting atop a rainbow

Without falling through...

But still I am wordless

And need

To resort to

Comparisons.

- Rebecca Yoder

Psalm 13

How long O Lord will You forget
How long O Lord will You look the other way
How long O Lord must I wrestle with my thoughts
And every day have such sorrow in my heart
Look on the poor, the weak, the orphan, and widow
Look on me and answer
O God my Father

How long will the defenseless be without a defender
Caught and caged
For everyone to point and stare
Empires of neighborhood boys
Empires of family and nations
With evil cunning, the slick and powerful
Offer the candy-coated bitter apple of empty promise
Stripping the ignorant orphan of his last hope

Bring light to the darkness
Before they see them fall
But I trust in your unfailing love
And my heart will rejoice
You have been good, You will be good to me
Will You be good, will You be good to them?

OMG!

A Prayer of Breakfast

Breakfast with a friend
Coffee
"I'll take a "Henrietta's favorite"
"Same here - on wheat"
Stories of faith, hope, and memories
Of finding God at strange places
Of Him finding us at even stranger places
"That's interesting, I've been thinking the same"
Coffee
"I couldn't say this to just anyone"
What scandalizes one builds faith in another
Keeping company. Not 2, but 3
Coffee
"See ya later. I love you man"
In Jesus' name, Amen

For Hope

May the incarnation of Christ in me be the reality that speaks hope into the screaming black silence and becomes my ground of being in the freefall of despair. Amen.

Broken

Broken...I now talk with God.
O Lord Jesus my Saviour.
Today my heart is empty.
Pride is the thing I will miss least when time comes to an end.
I need a priest.
I need a preacher.
I need an exorcist to banish the snake I've been handling called...self.
Broken...I now talk to God.

-Ben Pearson

Instrument of Your Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon, where there is doubt, faith, where there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I many not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
- Saint Francis of Assissi

The Tax Collector

"God be merciful to me, a sinner."

Shalom for the Ragamuffins

May the "Shalom voice" of the true Lord Jesus live in my heart with its power to give itself away. For your child, Oh God, grant grace to receive it and give it to the people of your heart - the broken, fatherless, widow, voiceless, nameless, and anxious. Give me courage to feed the mouth that bites the hand that feeds it. Amen

Hosanna

Save now, O Lord, from the quagmire of litigous, partisan religion. Break the tethers that reduce us to a deductive knowledge of You. Save us from the futility of self-preserving thought and action. Have mercy and lift us from the soul-stripping centrifuge of egocentric and self-defining ideology. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth. Be the Scandal. I'll be here waiting for you to start with me. Amen.

You Surround Me

You surround me
You indwell me
You're beside me
Ever present, always near
You're the whisper
Calling my name gently
Love eternal
Reaching to me
Jealous for me
God I will stay with you forever
Arm in arm together
You will never let me go
My life is not worth it without You
You gave meaning and sense to my life

-song by Karen Padgett, translated from Gaelic

Prayers from a Penlight

You look up one summer night and see
The billion burning suns of the Milky Way.
You've been informed this is barely a drop in the cosmic ocean,
So you snap a self-portrait
All hair and glasses and dental work,
And hold it up to the sky.
"KNOW ME."
-from "Prayerbook" by Billy Crockett

Prayer for my Enemies

Save, O Lord, and have mercy upon those that envy and affront me and do me mischief, and let them not perish through me, a sinner. Amen
-from an Orthodox prayer book

Coram Deo

"Before the Face of God"

Great God, grant me grace to live before your face. In Your presence is full joy. Open-handed. Amen.