Abundance & Fragility

Owen September 19, 2013 0
​Last month our prayers centred around the news. The everyday happenings of everyday life. Yet is it not true to say that the news is very selective. Who decides what is news and what isn’t? Yet at a purely personal level we make these decisions. We decide who and what we will reveal or tell about ourselves and our lives and the world we live in. Of course once we have told someone we have no control over the outcome. We actually live in a world that demands responses. When we stop responding we lose connectivity. Prayer is all about our voice our heart responding to the world around us. It is our dialogue with the Almighty in order that we might make space to understand and respond wisely to the voices that seek to grab our attention. This month Sanctuary First takes on a new perspective. We are inviting each of us who engage with this site to reflect on the abundance of life that is all around us while at the same time understanding our fragility. In our prayers this month we have invited the authors to lead us on distinct journeys that will cause us to reflect upon our need to be thankful in every situation in which we may find ourselves. Not an easy thing to accept or try to practice. Each day we will be invited to reflect on the journey the author of the prayer will take us upon. The following is guidance that has been given to the writers of the prayers for this month. If you feel like contributing a prayer why not write your prayers as a response to what you have read. In this way we can create a change of prayer around the topic of the day. The first journey writes prayers from the perspective of the fragile who feel fragile and are longing for protection. Prayers of protest lament and protection. The second journey takes us to the place of abundance. Only this time it is to understand the fragility of abundance. Prayers of repentance, contrition and thanksgiving. The third journey is among people who live in reckless abundance and cannot see that the balance of life is precarious. Prayers for self awareness, insight, compassion perhaps judgement. The fourth journey is among fragile people who rejoice in their fragility and doing so they uncover the beauty and the abundance of colour, smell,sound the kindness of humanity and the protection of the Almighty. All these insights may just last for a moment but their abundance for that moment is glorious. Prayers of thanksgiving, hope, compassion, beauty, inspiration, etc.