About our prayers
- About our Daily Prayers
We use these for our Morning Prayer, and this is reflected in the choice of scriptures, but they could be used whenever you wanted. They are heavily influenced in style and content by the Northumbria Community's Morning Prayer in their book 'Celtic Daily Prayer' (published by Collins), which we love and use regularly. The books and the Community been very formative in our spiritual journey.
- The line beginning "As I enter prayer..." is adapted from 24-7 Prayer's daily prayer App, 'Lectio 365, and encourages us to pause before plunging into prayer, and bring our whole attention and focus upon God and His presence with us. You can download the App for free by going to the website on the link above. We use it and recommend it.
- The following time of silence can be as long or as short as you feel necessary, perhaps a couple of minutes will be usual.
- Opening sentences: The first part is influenced by Coventry Cathedral's Litany of Reconciliation - which we also love and believe to be a very powerful prayer; The last sentence here is from Lamentations 3:22;
- Thanksgiving: We believe it is important to give thanks to God before we begin any other prayers. This time can be as long as necessary, and all may contribute. The scripture here is from Psalm 136;
- The last section in the Opening Sentences is from Psalm 27. It seems to us that seeking the Lord's face is of paramount importance at this time. These verses started out as part of one of the declarations (Thursday);
- Armour Prayer: Based on Ephesians 6:10-18, from various versions of the Bible. We have incorporated this as a prayer as we were encouraged to put on the Armour of God daily. We had this message from the Coming Home team: "I encourage you to very consciously put on the full armour of God, checking it piece by piece to make sure it’s in good shape. Why? Because as you move forward, your own strength and defences won’t be enough. Only God’s truth (including with each other), righteousness, readiness to share the gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the sword of the Spirit will get you through." The line about the gospel of peace comes from Crosswalk.
- Verse of the Day: We use either the ones in 24/7 Prayer's Lectio 365, CDP/NC's Morning Prayer page, or perhaps what has come to mind or what we may have been studying or reading. You may have another daily devotional source; it matters little, but they are spoken aloud, with a slight pause for digestion in between.
- Prayer for / blessing others: This is where we bless our 'fives', (those we are praying for and blessing in our LHOP). In practice, this includes our close family, and a few names chosen at random or as prompted by Holy Spirit. Visit our Local house of Prayer page for more details.
- A ‘prayer basket’ or ‘prayer pot’ can be used from which you select names for holding up before God. The 'prayer pot' contains slips of paper on which you write the names of folk to be remembered in prayer. The selected slips may be placed where they can be seen from time to time during the day, or carried around, as a reminder for continued prayer.
- Declaration: Choose as many statements as you like. They remind us of the truths that God has spoken over us either via scripture or via others.
- Blessing: from Numbers 6:24-26. We pray this over each other and those blessed earlier.
