Winter weather and Prayer

It’s time to get ready for dark and stormy days. Pray for those traveling over the mountain passes. 

This may raise a question: why pray? If God is all-powerful and in control, what difference do our prayers make? Won’t he protect travelers, or not, as he chooses? That’s a good question. An important part of the answer is that prayer is available to help us get closer to God. The ACNA Catechism puts it like this:

The Gospel is God’s invitation to know him, to love and serve him as members of his family, and to be transformed into his likeness. God continually calls his people to grow deeper in our relationship with him. Thus, for Christians, knowing and loving God is life’s central activity, and a primary way we do this is through prayer. Prayer is the way God has given us to listen and respond to him. . . .

Our primary resource for prayer as Anglicans, in addition to the Scriptures, is the Book of Common Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer has a central place in Prayer Book worship and is included in every service. However, beyond providing us forms of prayer, the Book of Common Prayer also gives us a rule of prayer — a way of ordering our lives around a daily pattern of prayer and the reading of Scripture.

Our life of prayer is one of obedience to Jesus, who prayed frequently and earnestly to the Father. It follows the pattern set by the leaders of the early Church.

Some may balk at the idea of obedience, but obedience is part of learning any valuable skill. Students of basketball practice drills, students of cooking practice basic recipes, students of the guitar play exercises. In each case, the student learns more than expected. The basketball player learns where to look for open team mates, the cook learns how to recognize and control stove top temperature, the guitar student learns about the different sonorities produced by chord inversions. Without obedience, we do not obtain these unexpected benefits.

Prayer works the same way. God exists and wants you to love him. If you pray and open yourself to that love, you will learn unexpected things and you may find yourself able to respond in new ways. You are welcome to join us to try this out. A simple way to explore the daily office is to follow this link to the ACNA daily office page: https://www.dailyoffice2019.com/

Blessings All,

Fr. Harley+