A prayer of the week from Scot McKnight
Here is a short prayer and comment from Scot McKnight and his Jesus Creed web site (linked at right). Not only the prayer, but the following comments are from Scot McKnight. Enjoy!
Here is the prayer for the week in The Divine Hours, which is taken from The Book of Common Prayer:
O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that I, who have been raised with him, may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory, through Jesus Christ my Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen.
Notice the theological foundation of this prayer: the "glorious resurrection" of the Son of God who "destroyed death" and "brought life and immortality to light."
Notice the implication: co-resurrection empowers us to "abide in his presence" and "rejoice in the hope of eternal glory."
Notice that it is all "through Jesus Christ our Lord."
This is how to pray. Learning to use the prayer books, which I'm a big advocate for in my Praying with the Church, brings us daily into the presence of prayers rich in theology, permanent in value, and instructive for how to pray.
Best wishes,
Mason Smith
Here is the prayer for the week in The Divine Hours, which is taken from The Book of Common Prayer:
O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that I, who have been raised with him, may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory, through Jesus Christ my Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen.
Notice the theological foundation of this prayer: the "glorious resurrection" of the Son of God who "destroyed death" and "brought life and immortality to light."
Notice the implication: co-resurrection empowers us to "abide in his presence" and "rejoice in the hope of eternal glory."
Notice that it is all "through Jesus Christ our Lord."
This is how to pray. Learning to use the prayer books, which I'm a big advocate for in my Praying with the Church, brings us daily into the presence of prayers rich in theology, permanent in value, and instructive for how to pray.
Best wishes,
Mason Smith
posted by Mason Smith at Friday, April 21, 2006
3 Comments:
Thanks, Mason, for sharing with us Scott McKnights "Prayer of the Week." What a gem! Such a prayer, like the "collects" of the church are wonderfully terse--and yet rich!--articulations of the church's prayer life. Carefully composed, like pressing our heart's desires into a kind of spoken diamond, collects surely help us present ourselves before God without undue self-promotion. If anyone asks, "What is the "collect"? I know it’s a kind of prayer, but why is it called a collect?" you can visit for a well-developed answer.
One little observation about McKnight's prayer. His prayer--and it's certainly all right!--is a first-person singular prayer; that is (and again, it's all right!), he prays "Grant that I . . . ." More traditionally, in collects (and this looks like one), we gather together our thoughts and come before God as "we," that is, in the first-person plural. Offering this prayer as gathered people, we might say,
O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that we,, who have been raised with him, may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory, through Jesus Christ my Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen.
Theologically the prayer would then emphasize that the gathered community is praying; all are together in Christ and coming to the Holy Trinity with shared desires.
Andy:
Thank you for the link on "collects." It attributes many of them in "The Book of Common Prayer" to Thomas Cremner, who happens to be a Reformation hero of mine.
Best wishes,
Mason
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