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03/16/2008
Prayer around the Cross - Like Clay in the Hand of the Potter
| musicians: | Instrumental Prelude A few minutes before vespers begins, as people are coming in. |
| reader I: | The Lord be with you. |
| All: | And also with you. |
| reader I: | At Holden Village it has become our pattern once a week to gather in prayer around the cross. This is a simple service of intercessory prayer. It is a time for silence and stillness, as we immerse ourselves in scripture, song, and prayer. |
| reader II: | Hear the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message. So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand. |
| reader I: | Just as the potter shapes a vessel, so does God shape each of us. Formed out of dust, holy breath, and love, we are made to be filled with grace, so we may pour out that grace for one another. Through prayer, we reach from our depths, and ask God to fill all of our hollow places. We give thanks for our wholeness, and for what each of us as God’s vessel can hold. |
| CHANT |
| reader I: | Often we do not feel whole. We are acutely aware of our brokenness, of the cracks, splinters, and shards that fall away from the vessels God has made. Guilt, shame, frustration, despair, bodily pain, depression they mar our shape and dampen our hopes. We feel unable to offer ourselves to God and each other, as we feel imperfect and unworthy to receive God’s healing. |
| reader II: | But the point is not to be perfect, to say the perfect thing, dance the perfect dance, sing the perfect song, live the perfect life. The point is the presence of God in spite of the cracks and the broken pieces-- the point is the presence of God’s life and light shining even, and amazingly, through them. |
| reader I: | A reading from Leonard Cohen: Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. |
| reader II: | What can fill the cracks, but God’s love? Forget about being perfect. Forget about using the right words in prayer. Forget about what you think you have to be to serve as God’s vessel. Instead, simply allow God in, bringing holy light through the cracks, reshaping you to wholeness. Feel the light inside you, moving into all your hollow places, filling you with God’s grace. |
| CHANT |
| reader I: | When we begin to sing together again, you are invited to come all you who long for healing and light a candle as you pray, an invitation to the light of Christ to come into your dark places and into the cracks in our world. If you would like others to gather around you in prayer and with the laying on of hands, come and light a candle at one of the bowls. If you would prefer to pray alone, please come and pray at one of the boxes. |
| reader II: | A reading from Rumi: Don’t turn your head. Keep looking at the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you. And don’t believe for a moment that you’re healing yourself. |
| reader I: | Come to the cross, to Christ, to pray. For Christ is broken with us and for us and fills us with the light and grace of God. |
| CHANTS AND EXTENDED TIME FOR PRAYER |
| reader I: | Let us pray. O God of our making and our molding, our shaping and reshaping, we thank you for our lives. Fill the cracks in us and in our world with your light and grace. Just as the potter shapes the vessel, shape us to do your work. Then enter us body, mind and spirit, we pray, and heal us of all that harms us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. |
| reader II: | You may remain for prayer, or you may leave quietly. Go in peace, filled with the light of God. |
| All: | Thanks be to God. |
| musicians: | Instrumental Postlude for an additional five minutes or more. |
A Vespers Setting by Erik Haaland |
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Comments
Thank you for sharing the Vespers. I have been sitting here today in Mexico knowing that it is Palm Sunday and wanting to feel like I was part of a worship. You gave that to me and in reading it I felt like I too was in the service with the cross and the candles as I was when I was at Holden. Your sharing made my day filled with more light. Bless you.
Posted by: mary | 03/16/2008