photo from catholicdialogue.com |
For instance, the rite for Evening Prayer lists these prayers (known as suffrages) on pages 121-122:
V. Show us your mercy, O Lord;
R. And grant us your salvation.
V. Clothe your ministers with righteousness;
R. Let your people sing with joy.
V. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world;
R. For only in you can we live in safety.
V. Lord, keep this nation under your care;
R. And guide us in the way of justice and truth.
V. Let your way be known upon earth;
R. Your saving health among all nations.
V. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten;
R. Nor the hope of the poor be taken away.
V. Create in us clean hearts, O God;
R. And sustain us by your Holy Spirit.
The prayers in the BCP are meant to be read together as a congregation, but they work great in your personal prayer life too. Pray for "saving health among the nations" for Liberia and Sierra Leone. Pray that the "hope of the poor" not be taken away in the midst of changes to MedicAid. "Give peace, O Lord, in all the world" is especially appropriate for Syria and Iraq these days.
Connecting the words of these tried-and-true prayers to real-life events takes some time, causing us to slow down and think about what's really going on around us. Rather than offering up a quick prayer without much thought, laying the newspaper beside the BCP helps us see the world's events in a scriptural way.
Just in case you wondered where the title for this blog post came from, and you have not seen this clip yet...