Tag: Pray

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Traveling the Way of Love: Pray

“Traveling the Way of Love” Season 2 offers video stories of the ways people across The Episcopal Church participate in the seven Way of Love practices. Produced by the Office of Communication in partnership with Evangelism colleagues, it includes study guides to help congregations or small groups engage the stories and strengthen one another’s discipleship. Each week, we’ll share information about an episode, along with study questions suitable for congregational, small group, or personal reflection. You can find each episode and its discussion guide at iam.ec/TWOL2.

Episode 6: Pray

He 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.’

Luke 11:1

Jesus teaches us to come before God with humble hearts, boldly offering our thanksgivings and concerns to God, or simply listening for God’s voice in our lives and in the world. Whether in thought, word, or deed, individually or corporately, when we pray, we invite and dwell in God’s loving presence.

1. In this episode, host Chris Sikkema visits Holy Apostles, a congregation founded by Episcopalian Oneidas from New York, who settled in Wisconsin on Menominee and Ho-Chunk land in 1822. The first community initially first gathered beneath the trees to worship, a history reflected in Judy Cornelius’ description of prayer as “holy quiet.” Whether during high mass or under trees, prayer allows us to connect with something of God, transcendent beyond ourselves. Where do you experience “holy quiet”? How does God meet you there?

2. Consider the connection between your own prayer practices and the outward and visible signs that accompany them. For instance, like Jennifer Webster, do you find comfort in the scent of incense or the act of burning tobacco as you send your prayers to the divine? What are some of your unique prayer traditions?

3. The Oneida hymns are an important part of Holy Apostles’ prayer life—both communally and individually. Are there songs or styles of music that you find helpful for your prayer life?

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Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds. Small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between use the resources that Sermons That Work provides.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love – Pray

Our day to day lives can be hurried and busy. We have so many things to do and so little time to do them. With devices and media asking for our time, so much to do and hear and say – it can make us feel overwhelmed and isolated. It can make our relationships challenging, as we struggle to connect.

The practice of the Way of Love, following in the footsteps of Jesus, tells us that God wants to break through the noise and busy-ness of the world and be able to have a relationship with us – with you. Not as a distant god in a far-off sky, or as a theory or an ideal or a metaphor, but a presence, dwelling with us, here and now. And the way to make that connection is to Pray.

As the Psalmist tells us: “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Jesus taught us that it is nourishing and strengthening to intentionally take time to pray. The daily practice of making time and space to speak with God, to listen to God, or to simply be with God, clears a pathway for God to enter our lives.

Jesus told us how we can talk with God: We can praise God and thank God for all that has been done. We can tell God about our troubles, and God will listen. We can ask God for healing and forgiveness, and God will help restore us. We can ask God for protection, and face the world with courage. Or we can simply receive God’s spirit, in faith that when we make space to pray, God is with us.

We can pray alone and know that we are not alone in this world. We can pray together, whether just two or three of us or a whole community, and find a whole new level of connection with those who are on the journey with us. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

The Way of Love is not a static practice, in which we read a book of rules and perform the exercises to become improved people. It is a dynamic practice, and part of the active process of transforming our lives is opening up the channels of communication with God, giving and taking, talking and listening, like electricity flowing through a cable or streams that connect a river to the sea. We create a connective flow with a God who loves and cares about us, who and where we are on a daily basis, and wants to know how you are doing today.

Are you making a commitment to incorporate the regular practice of prayer into your life? Is there a place where you can gather with others in the presence of the divine?

Learn more about the Way of Love at episcopalchurch.org/wayoflove. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Turning at iam.ec/ewol.

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Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Explore the Way of Love: Pray

Our day to day lives can be hurried and busy. We have so many things to do and so little time to do them. With devices and media asking for our time, so much to do and hear and say – it can make us feel overwhelmed and isolated. It can make our relationships challenging, as we struggle to connect.

The practice of the Way of Love, following in the footsteps of Jesus, tells us that God wants to break through the noise and busy-ness of the world and be able to have a relationship with us – with you. Not as a distant god in a far-off sky, or as a theory or an ideal or a metaphor, but a presence, dwelling with us, here and now. And the way to make that connection is to Pray.

As the Psalmist tells us: “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Jesus taught us that it is nourishing and strengthening to intentionally take time to pray. The daily practice of making time and space to speak with God, to listen to God, or to simply be with God, clears a pathway for God to enter our lives.

Jesus told us how we can talk with God: We can praise God and thank God for all that has been done. We can tell God about our troubles, and God will listen. We can ask God for healing and forgiveness, and God will help restore us. We can ask God for protection, and face the world with courage. Or we can simply receive God’s spirit, in faith that when we make space to pray, God is with us.

We can pray alone and know that we are not alone in this world. We can pray together, whether just two or three of us or a whole community, and find a whole new level of connection with those who are on the journey with us. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

The Way of Love is not a static practice, in which we read a book of rules and perform the exercises to become improved people. It is a dynamic practice, and part of the active process of transforming our lives is opening up the channels of communication with God, giving and taking, talking and listening, like electricity flowing through a cable or streams that connect a river to the sea. We create a connective flow with a God who loves and cares about us, who and where we are on a daily basis,and wants to know how you are doing today.

Are you making a commitment to incorporate the regular practice of prayer into your life? Is there a place where you can gather with others in the presence of the divine?

Learn more about the Way of Love

Learn more about the Way of Love at The Way of Love. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Praying at Explore the Way of Love.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.