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?

St. Paul’s Cycle of Prayer – Wednesday – Paul’s Place after school program and the St. Paul’s Day School

From the 1 Samuel reading for today, chapter 16 – the story of Samuel anointing David as future king. As Jesse’s sons are paraded in front of Samuel, each is rejected by God despite what Samuel may think: “for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

St. Paul echoes this in 2nd Corinthians 5:16-20: “16-20Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!” (The Message).

In this day and age when we seem to be polarizing more than ever, separating people by race or economic status or which particular denominational beliefs they hold to be true, we would do well to remember – the Lord does not see as we see, he sees our hearts. And as followers of Christ, we are also called to no longer look at people from a human point of view. We have all been made one in Christ, all created new. High time we lived like we believed that.

St. Paul’s Cycle of Prayer – Tuesday – Seekers and other Young Adults, those in our community who are unchurched, our community and those in need, especially Family Promise and CROS ministries

Words from Psalm 5, appointed for today: ³In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; *
early in the morning I make my appeal and watch for you.

Watching for the Lord. That’s my ever increasing call. Pray. Watch.

St. Paul’s Cycle of Prayer – Monday – Children, youth, and family ministries of St. Paul’s and those who teach and work with our youth. Our music program and choirs.

(reminder – click on Prayer Instructions for ways to say the Daily Office online)

From the New Testament lesson for this morning, taken from Acts Chapter 8: ²⁶ When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. ²⁷ But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus.

Barnabas is one of my heroes. The “son of encouragement” has such a huge role to play in development of St. Paul as an apostle, as one who joined him on his early journeys, and as seen here, one who defended him early on to the apostles. Without Barnabas would we have ever known Paul? Would the disciples had trusted him? Would Saul have learned the faith, the foundation of belief in Christ?

It is the feast day of Jan Hus, martyred in the 14th century. Hus’s story is amazing. He was a Barnabas in many ways, ensuring the faith passed down is true. Click HERE to read about Hus.

Who is a Barnabas in your life? Who can you be a Barnabas for? I will be looking for both today, thinking and praying about that in my own life. Will you join me?