12.26.2012

Wednesday Prayers: Tedium and Te Deum

The trouble with naming prayers weekly (well, weeklyish, if you need to be precise) is that they get tedious. There's nothing new on my list today-- both the bloggable and the unbloggable are boring, drawn-out prayers.  Discernment.  Family.  Rest and peace.

I notice the tedium in my private prayers, and I suspect I'm not alone in noticing it in corporate prayers.  As we reach the prayers of the people each week, often the same people have been on the list (in the same order), for weeks, if not months.  If I went back to my old parish, I bet I could still recite parts of their list of those in need.  That ongoing faithfulness in petition is part of being the body of Christ together-- but like all other relationships, even our relationship in and with Christ can have boring bits.

I didn't want to share Wednesday Prayers this week.  Because of the tedium.  Almost as soon as I thought that, though, I heard it as "Te Deum."  Thee, O God, we praise.  The church's ancient hymn, reminding me that when humanity (mine, and all that around me) brings on a haze of torpor, it's time to look elsewhere.  

Is there a characteristic of God's that you're particularly aware of this week?  Will you share it, and make it part of the wider hymn?

Thee, O God, we praise. 

6 comments:

  1. generosity in becoming a goose like us.

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    1. Oh, generosity is exactly the right word for that!

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  2. I love what you have written.

    Abundance and pardon

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  3. Our church occasionally does a zeroing out of those lists. Maybe we all need a rest bottom to wipe our prayers clean.

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    1. Stratoz, I think a lot of people I know would like a rest bottom. ;)

      Sometimes we do need a reset. Other times, though-- we just have real longings and needs that hang out there for a very, very long time. Hannah. Moses. Anna. I do believe in perseverance in prayer, I just... well, sometimes need a rest bottom.

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  4. The image of the Holy Spirit pleading on our behalf came into my head.

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"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."
-Saint Molly Ivins