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Tag: prayer
Candlelight vigil for Brian Helman
In the beauty of our candlelit sanctuary, in the midst of people from within and beyond our parish community, in the “active and alive” silence shared by people in prayer, and in companionship of grief, we prayed for Brian Helman, our church musician who was severely injured two weeks ago. This prayer vigil was organized as an effort of love with Brian’s family, St. Andrew’s, the Cumberland Valley School of Music. This time of silent prayer felt like a thin place, for Brian was in a liminal space, between life and death, and we could join him as we joined our hearts with God, who holds us all.
To read the collection of prayers, poems, and lyrics gathered specifically for this time of prayer, please click on the resource below.
We are so grateful to all whose hearts were opened by this time together, whose prayers were offered in love and hopefulness, and whose souls were changed by this encounter with God in community.
Taize Service
We gathered in silence, candlelight and love to share a meaningful and soul-touching service. The Taize music, led by Brian Helman, Lisa Turchi, and Carenda Baker settled into our souls and brought us to the quiet place where we were able to “Be still and know that I am God”. We celebrated a Holy Eucharist that was simple in form yet deep in meaning. There was a strong sense of communion and peace which filled the space and our hearts.
We then moved into the Parish Life Center for a reception of soup, bread, cheese, salad, and amazing French apple pies.
Ways to Pray Formation Series
This past Wednesday evening, after a time of laughter, joy and a meal shared together, we settled down into a deep and profound conversation about our spiritual lives. We had each completed a Spiritual Type Inventory, based upon our natural preferences for the order in worship, in the structure and time of worship, style of prayer, music, preaching, support of causes, membership criteria, ritual and liturgy and concept of God. The four spiritual types articulated in this inventory are “Earth, Water, Air, Fire”.
To complete the inventory, please click on the link below.
We then opened up the conversation, to what specific part of the Sunday worship experience draws your heart the most. The answers were diverse and deeply profound. The idea set within our Christian lives is to deepen that experience. Our current spiritual practices keep us where we are now with God, but our spiritual life is never static, we are always called to go deeper, so we can live into and out of God’s blessing which meets us in our prayer life.
If you would like to talk with Mother Barbara or Dina Carter Ishler, our Field Placement Intern, about this Spiritual Types Inventory or how you might be able to deepen your practice, please reach out to them. You can call the parish office (717-532-8089) and leave a message for them to contact you.
Praying with the Celtic Psalter: Does prayer fit into your day, or does your day fit into your prayer?
As part of our exploration of Celtic Spirituality, Mother Barbara has invited all of us to pray daily (morning and evening) with the book, Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter by John Phillip Newell. Here’s a reflection by Jeanine Goodwin on her experience in preparation for our group conversation.
Wanting to get an idea of what this next flight of formation would bring, about two weeks ago I engaged in the prayers in John Phillip Newell’s psalter, Sounds of the Eternal. Soon I found myself sitting with the prayers for a few moments because things were shimmering up off the page, and soon was doing a lectio divina of sorts, reflecting on a phrase to let it lead.
One of the prayers speaks of “rekindling”, “sparks”, and “part of the blazing splendor”. It happened kind of miraculously, on the same day we heard a sermon about God calling to Moses out of a burning bush. That alone got my attention, and the thing that caught me up was that for a moment I was feeling like Moses might have, intimidated by such a big intense heat and brightness, such a clarity of call.
I found myself reaching for my current notebook, to try to capture viscerality of the insight before it slid down back into the depths of unconsciousness and have kept it at hand ever since.
From this morning what prompted a rise of the heart was, “You lift up my soul, O God, and make the eyes sparkle. You give health and life and blessing.” I realized that in the doing, partaking of as one does a sacrament, the daily practice of prayer using Newell’s psalter, I’ve noticed what happens when not doing it, almost more than what happens when I do. Keeping the notebook at hand, I can look back and see what rose up out of the text on a given day. Some days there are two entries, one in the morning, one in the evening. More often than not there’s only one. I notice when not doing it, there’s the opportunity to see what’s taking it’s place instead. I recalled the lives of the brothers at Holy Cross Monastery and saw that this practice of prayer, contemplation, is what shapes their days.
So then it rolled out thus: It’s not how my religion and spiritual practice fit into my day, but how my day fits into my practice. The practice has started shaping the day, shapes me in my day, becomes the foundation from which my movements, and responses arise.
I’m staying tuned.
Grace. Peace.
Jeanine
Jesus lived in a cave.
We saw this cave this evening. We’re in Nazareth and after a rather ordinary day of travel and nothing totally remarkable happening or requiring processing, we went down below the convent where we’re staying.
My soul is both too silent for words to express my reaction to this sight and also too stirred up to ever be the same. I will need to process this a bit with you as I return, to begin to make sense of what I saw and where I was this evening. But I do know that seeing the place where Jesus lived, played, prayed, slept, and visited with his extended family brought me into a real mystical sense of the living Jesus, who was formed by this location and his traditions and family, and which played out in the ministry. I know more now about the living Jesus~ the why and how that plays out in our lives is still a wondering for me.
Mother Betsy and I ended the evening with Compline, a perfect way to enclose and release the gift we received into the love of God, whose son, our Lord, lives with us now as the risen Christ. Amen. Amen.
We keep making beads!
We want everyone who would like to be able to make Anglican Prayer Beads and learn how to pray them.
So we brought the beads to the people today. Thank you, Jeanine, for making this possible!
Here are some photos of people creating beads from clay, choosing the right spacer beads and laying it all out, and then stringing them.
If you would like to make a set and haven’t had the chance to do so, just let us know. We want you to be able to engage in this way to connect more deeply with God.