The Transcript of Radio 4 Sunday Service May 9th Archbishop Stephen Cottrell
REFLECTION 1 – What is prayer and how do I start? By Hannah Betteridge, Belfrey
intern
For me prayer has always been a part of my life, and it’s now part of my
morning routine and it helps me to start the day off right by talking to God.
When you start a relationship with anyone I think many would agree that
conversation is very important and that’s just the same with our relationship
with God. I’ve been familiar with a style of prayer, , where I would start with
thankfulness and praising him for things that have past, then say sorry for
things that I am doing wrong, and finish with bringing my sadness and asking him
for help in situations to come. Prayer can often be over
complicated by adding in lots of long words but you can keep it simple and at
the end of the day God simply rejoices when he hears your voice calling out to
him.
I love this quotation, ‘God calls out to every human heart and longs to make a
home in every human heart. But God waits for us to respond’. It reminds me of
when I was younger I remember singing a song called ‘Prayer is like a
Telephone’ and when you speak to someone on a telephone you have to actually
pick it up. And in the days when corded telephones were more commonly used, you
would have to make time for that person as you couldn’t really move anywhere or
do anything else while talking to them. And that's exactly what prayer is like:
finding a time to talk to and ‘offer God your thoughts, even your distractions
and anxieties’.
REFLECTION 2 – How to build prayer into everyday life Frances Simon
Journaling…Journaling helps me to immediately connect with God and has
been a favourite go to over the years. I keep a pen and paper by my bed
and note down how I am feeling. It usually starts with praise and then
gets down to the nitty gritty.
My last entry was just 10 lines long and then I whizzed into my busy day and
left the overflow of my heart with my God on the pages of my Journal. God
always listens and is always there. My refuge who I turn to, a very
present help in trouble where I feel safe.
Through Journaling God becomes near and as the scriptures say, draw close to
God and he will draw close to you. By having my notebook by my bedside, I am
drawing him close. I am the bride he is the bridegroom. Through
Journaling I am journeying with God. (1 minute 15 secs)
God is my refuge and strength, an ever–present help in trouble. Therefore,
we will not fear, though the earth gives way, and the mountains fall into the
heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with
their surging… The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
PSALM 4
1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness; you set me at
liberty when I was in trouble; have mercy on me and hear my
prayer.
2 How long will you nobles dishonour my glory; how
long will you love vain things and seek after falsehood?
3 But know that the Lord has shown me his marvellous
kindness; when I call upon the Lord, he will hear me.
4 Stand in awe, and sin not; commune with your own
heart upon your bed, and be still.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your
trust in the Lord.
6 There are many that say, ‘Who will show us any good?’
Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us.
7 You have put gladness in my heart, more than when
their corn and wine and oil increase.
8 In peace I will lie down and sleep, for it is you
Lord, only, who make me dwell in safety.
REFLECTION 3 – How to pray when prayer seems impossible. The Revd Anne Richards
The world was preparing for Christmas, and I was two hundred miles from home,
in a hospice, at my Mum’s bedside. After 2 years of bravely living with
an incurable rare cancer, Mum was dying. Advent waiting took on a whole
new meaning. Words often failed me, so prayer became a silent vigil.
A beautiful playlist held us together as family – and especially soothed Mum,
as we took it in turns to hold her hand. A borrowed nativity scene illuminated
by battery-operated tea-lights reminded us of Christ’s light, present with us
in our suffering. My solitary walk to and from the hospice was often
accompanied by words from the Psalms which bubbled up. Inwardly, I would gently
repeat them over and over. They somehow gave expression to my heart’s cry and
brought me comfort. My journal was a listening friend, where I wrote
things exactly as they were – thoughts and prayers that questioned God and
tried to make sense of our circumstances. ‘How long O Lord?’ Sometimes
tears were my only prayer, as the agonising, wearying, ache of grief
overwhelmed me, especially during long sleepless nights, spent in the solitude
of my friend’s spare bedroom. The prayers and compassion of the
church, friends near and far, reassured us that we were surrounded by God’s
love, regardless of our capacity to pray or worship. In the
depths of grief, prayer certainly felt impossible to put into words, yet it
became something deeper and holier than I’ve ever known. In the words of Psalm
120, ‘in my distress I cried out to the Lord, and he answered
me’. God, through the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, was surprisingly close.
Luke. (11.1-13) Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had
finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John
taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed
be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our
daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we
ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to
the time of trial.’ And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend,
and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of
bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.”
And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been
locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you
anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything
because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up
and give him whatever he needs.
‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find;
knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and
everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be
opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give
a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a
scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask him!’
This is the word of the Lord. All Thanks be to God.
The prayer that Jesus taught his friends is the heart and pattern of all
Christian prayer.
The first two words may be the most significant: Our Father. God is a loving
parent – father and mother. Jesus himself called God Abba, meaning Dad. This is
the intimacy we have with God. And even though some people have had damaging
experiences of family, and parents have let them down, by using this word,
Jesus says that relationship with God can heal and restore all relationships
and that we, too, can dwell close to the Father’s heart. Then, please note, it
isn’t my Father, but our Father. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us that praying
is something we do together – even when we’re on our own! Whole books
could be written about these two words and the revolutionary change they bring
to our relationship with God and our relationships with each other, and,
therefore, to the meaning of prayer which is, first of all, to dwell intimately
in relationship with the God who loves us and comes to us in Jesus. In Jesus we
have access to God. We can bring God everything.
As for the rest of the Lord’s Prayer, well there’s hardly time here to say much
more, but after these opening words the great Anglican theologian, Austin
Farrar, described the Lord’s Prayer as ‘three hearty praises followed by three
humble petitions.’ These six phrases show us what our life and what our prayer
should be.
First, we praise: hallowed be your name. With our unveiled faces, we gaze upon
the beauty of God. We come into God’s presence. We are transformed We seek
God’s kingdom on Earth. We hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness and
peace. We ask that God’s will be done in our lives and in the life of the
world. We take sides with the poor and the oppressed. We’re not trying to
change God’s mind. We’re asking God to change ours! To conform our lives to
that pattern of life that we see in Christ. And we do ask things for ourselves.
But not the usual self-regarding wish list as if prayer were a transaction or a
deal, but, first, only that God will give us our daily bread. Nothing more.
Nothing less. The whole world could do with learning the radical simplicity of
this prayer. Teach us what enough looks like. Save us from ourselves.
Then, mindful of our many shortcomings, not least our greed, we confess our
sinfulness and seek God’s forgiveness. We learn to be merciful because we know
how much we need God’s mercy ourselves.
Finally, we pray for strength to face temptation and be delivered from evil.
And because God is a loving Father and Mother we offer this prayer not to one
who is distant or uninterested, but to the one who has come to us in Jesus and
taught us how to pray.
I think it was Therese of Lisieux who said that if you could say the Lord’s
Prayer once and truly mean it, you would be in heaven.
I’ve said this prayer many times and will almost certainly say it many times
again. This goes to show that I am not yet in heaven; that heaven has not yet
been builded in the earth.
PRAYER
Jesus says, ‘For everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.’ I invite
you now to join with me in knocking on that door in confidence that God will
hear our call.
Sometimes it’s difficult to find the words. So it’s helpful to rely on some
memorable ways of bringing your concerns before God. Sometimes , we need to
make prayer more physical, to express in external signs and symbols the
internal longing and desires of our hearts. The following strategy
is based on what the Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen called ‘opening up our
tightly clenched fists’ to pray.
You take your closed fist, and gradually open it up, to receive the
blessings and wisdom that God longs to give each and every one of us. In this
way, your hands open before God, your hand itself can be a basic pattern and
reminder of how to pray.
So I hold my clenched fist in front of me now.
Now stretch I out my thumb. We begin with thanksgiving – count our blessings.
Thank God for today and for the good things in our lives. For Christians this
includes the resurrection of Jesus who destroys death and sin. We thank
God for new life, for the hope brought by vaccines and medical care, and the
relief felt by many as restrictions become more relaxed.
Then I stretch out my index finger. the finger we use to point. So we
pray for direction in our lives, for the decisions we need to make, the things
for which we are responsible. We pray for direction for the world and its people,
for all those who are facing uncertainty and anguish, that they might find
their path through the darkness.
I now add my middle finger. , the tallest on my hand as we pray for
those who have power in the world: for our Church leaders, for the Queen and
her ministers, for other governments, and for local leaders. We pray that they
are guided by justice, peace and truth in their decisions and leadership.
My ring finger is the weakest finger. It can’t do much on its own. We
pray for the people we rely on: our friends and family, the people we
depend on and those that depend on us. We pray for all those in caring
positions, give them the strength they need to support others.
Lastly I stretch out my little finger and pray for those who desperately
need help: the sick, the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, the bereaved and those
who face violence. We remember those who have died and those who mourn. May the
Resurrection bring hope to the hearts of all who suffer. And finally we lift
both our hands to God in thanksgiving, and pray for our own needs.