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

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

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"

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

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.

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

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

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.