I forgot to pray for rain in the pastoral prayer Sunday. It's dry as a dust pit here in the deep South and we need a soaker. The cattle are thirsty in the fields. Plants are distressed.
I prayed without notes except the scribbled requests for healing and care I wrote as the congregation spoke up.
After all my preparation for Easter Sunday, I did not have a pastoral prayer ready. Part of the problem was the worship bulletin did not list the prayers of the people. The secretary is an airy kind of gal.*
Do you write out your pastoral prayer?
Just wondering. And, we need rain.
St. C
*Secretary looks a great deal like me. Sounds like me, too.
8 comments:
~laffin~ I think I would like your secretary.
It's hard to believe you're asking for rain!
You know, my secretary looks like me and sounds like me, too. Funny that.
We need rain up here in Michigan too. (And, yes, it's ironic that you all need rain down there right now.)
When I am assisting, I write out the Prayers of the Church. When my pastor is soloing, he just riffs it, stream-of-consciousness...I'm not quite that brave yet.
I, who am also the secretary, did not write out a prayer, but did take those similar notes. I like being spontaneous, but the crying baby shortened me up, and I missed a name that had been given me and a name I meant to say, and I was sorry about that.
Oh St. C, my secretary (similar description as yours as we transition from one who quit the Friday before Holy week to one we hired the Saturday before Easter) also forgot to reinsert the pastoral prayer and Lord's prayer after messing around with the order of worship in the bulletin. So I graciously included it in the prayer of illumination which grew from 3 lines to 3 paragraphs plus mention of the more recent illnesses in our congregation.
Usually I write my prayers, occasionally I go by an outline.
I am also the secretary, although I also have one who is 6'3 has a beard and rides a Harley. On top of great photocopying abilities he also makes great coffee and gives fantastic hugs at 11:30 pm Saturday night when I am still wading through tomorrow's sermon.
I never write out prayers, I may jot while people are talking but I find if I write I end up reading in a monotone and not really feeling like I have prayed.
Yep - I'm the secretary, too! Bummer, huh, when there's no one else to blame for the mistakes and omissions.
At one time I ALWAYS wrote my prayers. Now it varies. I've always been so afraid of getting tongue-tied while praying off-the-cuff. (You know, preachers are supposed to be so polished at these things!)Then one week when I failed to write the prayer and discovered the prayer that day to be an adventure in following the Spirit. I prayed in a way that a pre-written prayer does not allow. And so now some weeks I put much thought and time in my prayers before Sunday and other times I chase the Spirit!
Both. I usually spend a lot of time thinking about it and actually praying it -- then it gets left on the kitchen table.
pfft.
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