NIGHT PRAYER: Friday 6/9

To prepare for tonight's prayer...     

 

• The month of June is a time of special devotion to the Heart of Jesus.  (See last Friday morning's Pause for Prayer).  On the Fridays of June, Night Prayer will offer an opportunity to pray with art, with images of the Heart of Christ.

  

• Just as the scriptures are a source for our reflection and prayer,  we can also approach a work of art for inspiration (as we did this past Lent). DON'T WORRY! You don't have to be a museum goer or an art historian to pray this way. You need only some time, some art, a prayerful curiosity and an openness to what the Lord may share with you through a sacred image. 

 

• The image for tonight's prayer is a work by Canadian sculptor, Timothy Schmalz, pictured below with his larger-than-life "Open Your Heart" - and below that, detail from the same piece. Begin by spending some time taking in both images:

    What are your very first impressions?  

    In three words or fewer, what does this image say to you? 

    What in this image surprises you?  

    Does anything in this image puzzle you?

    Jesus' heart: 

        do you see it enveloped by his cloak 

            or unveiled as he opens his garment?

    How does this image of Jesus relate to images of Christ

        already in your mind and heart?  

    What in this image invites you to prayer? 

 

 

 

     Jesus is often imaged holding or extending his heart to us as a gift

        but here we are imaged already in heart of Christ.

    Can you imagine yourself already held within the heart of Jesus?

        How will you pray from within the shelter of his heart? 

    What in this image invites you to prayer? 

    What about this image will stay with you

        once you've said Amen at the end of tonight's prayer?

 

 

 

Far beyond my dreaming, Lord, 

 your great heart swells eternally,

 holding in its chambers

 every human person created in your image:

 the peoples of all ages, of every race and nation, 

   those long past, those present now 

    and all those yet to come...

 

You hold me in your heart, Lord,

 where you've held me for all time,

 since long before my birth,

 for all things come to be through you,

  without you, nothing is....

 

In your holy heart, O Jesus,

 we are brothers, sisters, all

 and children of one Father,

 called to open our hearts 

 as wide as you do yours,

 in mercy, love and peace...

 

You bid us sync our hearts with yours

 in thought and word and deed

 'til all hearts beat as one, Lord

 through your Spirit's healing grace...

 

Swell my soul to welcome in:

 the stranger I've not met,

 the one whose ways are not my own

 and those whom I've estranged

 by my foolish, selfish pride...

 

As you have room in your love, Lord,

 for every one of us,

 help me make room in my heart

 for all whose paths cross mine...

Keep me in your heart, Lord

 hold me close within your arms:

 may the home that's mine within you

 be my home for ever more...

 

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake,

watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I keep the watch with you

    and rest, deep in your peace...

 

Amen.

Restless by Audrey Assad

If a video doesn't appear below, click here!

 

You dwell in the songs that we are singing,  

Rising to the Heavens, rising to Your heart, Your heart.  

Our praises filling up the spaces  

In between our frailty and everything You are  

You are the keeper of my heart  

 

And I'm restless, I'm restless 

'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You  

I am restless, I'm restless  

'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You Oh God,

I wanna rest in You  

 

Oh, speak now for my soul is listening  

Say that You have saved me, 

whisper in the dark, the dark.  

'Cause I know You're more than my salvation  

Without you I am hopeless, tell me who You are  

You are the keeper of my heart  

You are the keeper of my heart  

 

And I'm restless, I'm restless 

'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You  

I am restless, I'm restless  

'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You, 

Oh I wanna rest in You 

 

Still my heart, hold me close  

Let me hear, a still small voice  

Let it grow, let it rise 

Into a shout, into a cry  

Still my heart, hold me close  

Let me hear, a still small voice  

Let it grow, let it rise Into a shout, into a cry 

 

And I am restless, I'm restless  

'Til I rest in You, let me rest in You  

And I am restless, so restless  

'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You, 

Oh God Let me rest in You.

 

  

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