Pathways to Prayer | August 2025
"For the Parish" | August 2025
A Collect For the Parish
Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, comfort the grieving, and draw us ever closer to you. Send your Holy Spirit to revive our hearts. Kindle in us a passion for your Gospel so that we can show forth your grace in our families, our neighborhoods, and the city of Lynchburg. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Based Collect no. 11 in the Book of Common Prayer, p. 817
You might have recognized this prayer Sunday at the end of the Prayers of the People. I shared a version of it in June, and it was our common prayer for all of the fall of 2023. Fr. Chris and I put this in each week to encourage our Parish to pray for one another, that our common prayer might be a strengthening and renewal of our ministry together. For me, it is one of the ones that I've said so often I feel like I have all the words at the tip of my tongue.
This time I've changed it a bit to fit where we are now. I hope that each of you might take this prayer this month of August and include it in your daily prayer. Pray it, write it in a journal or on an index card or print it off and put it on your fridge. It will be on our Prayer Calendar, as well. And when you pray it, pray for us. Pray for those you are close to at St. John's, and pray for those whom you do not know yet. Pray for the newcomers, the visitors, and those who are returning after a season away. Pray for the eight-o-clockers, the ten-thirtyers, and those who join us online. Pray for those at church who are different from you, those who you don't get along with, and those who are disagreeable. Pray for our church family-- family means all of us.
One of the big questions I often hear in one-on-one conversations revolve around how we pray for one another. In many circumstances, my advice is this. When praying for that person, whomever that is for you, all that is required is that you come before God with that person's name on your lips & mind & heart. God knows the rest. God knows what that person needs, and when we struggle to pray for someone all we need to do is to offer that struggle to God. Then, we have already prayed for them and God is working in their hearts and ours.
As summer winds down, our campus, and our community is changing. We continue to grieve even as we get ready to welcome a new leader (Father Ken) for a season. God is ahead of us, and inviting us to care for one another in new and renewed ways in this season. So this month I invite you - pray for the Parish. ~ Fr. Ben
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