St. Paul’s Cycle of Prayer – Thursday – The people of Bondeau, Haiti, especially Pere Phanord, the school teachers and medical clinic volunteers; and for our Cursillo community.

(click Prayer Instructions for links to Morning or Evening Prayer for today)

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated unto you; and then use us, we pray you, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This prayer of Self-Dedication from the prayer book is a great reminder of how to pray. I look at the Acts reading for today, which continues the story of St. Peter and Cornelius, one of my favorite Bible stories, and recognize the importance of this type of prayer to both of them in the story. Asking God to both guide our minds and fill our imaginations is a wonderful way to open ourselves up to what the Spirit is saying to us, where God is leading us. Peter never dreamed (until he did!) of eating unclean food, but he had become a man of deep and intense prayer, yesterday that prayer put him in a trance where the vision God sent him was received. But if he was not open to God guiding his mind, controlling his will, being utterly dedicated to God, it never would have happened. The same can be said for Cornelius. I pray it can be said for me. What about you?