Starting this week, I will be suspending blog posts over the weekend. Instead, I will provide a weekly prayer chain blog that you can use during the weekend to support and uplift one another in your daily lives. Each post will include a scripture, commentary, and several prayers sourced from various places, including the internet, the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), or originally written by myself or my friends and family. I hope this initiative will help disrupt the chaos surrounding theology, politics, and culture, offering you a reprieve from the stressors of everyday life.
“Prayer is based on God’s love for believers. Through his grace, he gives them things they do not deserve, while through his mercy he shields them from those they do deserve.”[1] It is through prayer and by prayer that we worship God and serve one another. Prayer is how we center on God’s will in life.
For the Universal Church
By: William Laud
Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill
it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of
Jesus Christ, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
For the Local Congregation
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things in heaven
and on earth: Mercifully hear our prayers, and grant that in
this Congregation the pure Word of God may be preached and
the Sacraments duly administered. Strengthen and confirm the
faithful; protect and guide the children; visit and relieve the
sick; turn and soften the wicked; arouse the careless; recover
the fallen; restore the penitent; remove all hindrances to the
advancement of your truth; and bring us all to be of one heart
and mind within your holy Church, to the honor and glory of
your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
“Psalm 1 is a fitting introduction for the Psalter in that it summarizes the two ways open to mankind, the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. It may be classified as a wisdom psalm because of its emphasis on these two ways of life, the use of the similes, the announcement of blessing, and the centrality of the Law for fulfillment in life. The motifs in this psalm recur again and again throughout the collection.
The psalm describes the blessed man who leads an untarnished and prosperous life in accord with the Word of the Lord, and contrasts him with the ungodly who shall perish.”Allen P. Ross, “Psalms,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 790.
Beatus vir qui non abiit
BLESSED is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, * and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; * and in his law will he exercise himself day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the water-side, * that will bring forth his fruit in due season.
4 His leaf also shall not wither; * and look, whatsoever he doeth, it shall prosper.
5 As for the ungodly, it is not so with them; * but they are like the chaff, which the wind scattereth away from the face of the earth.
6 Therefore the ungodly shall not be able to stand in the judgment, * neither the sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
7 But the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; * and the way of the ungodly shall perish.[2]
[1] Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 2009).
[2] The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: The Seabury Press, 1976), Ps 1.
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