We all live with the pressures of twenty-first century life.  We all know the ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows that are part of the human condition.  We all need to spend time with God, listening as well as speaking to him and prayer helps us to do just that.

Through prayer, you will know God's presence as guide and companion, confessor and carer, and most of all as friend on the journey of life.

God hears our prayer...

Children's Prayers!

A four year old boy was asked to give thanks before Christmas dinner.  The family members bowed their heads in expectation.  He began his prayer, thanked God for all his friends, naming them one by one.  Then he thanked God for Mummy, Daddy, brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and then all his aunts and uncles.  Then he began to thank God for the food.  He gave thanks for the turkey, the stuffing, the mince pies, the Christmas pudding, even the brandy butter.  Then he paused, and everyone waited - and waited.  After a long silence, the young boy looked up at his mother and asked "If I thank God for the sprouts, won't he know I'm lying?".

Can we be as honest and as natural in our prayers?  After all, God knows us better than we know ourselves!

The Celtic Knot

The interwoven, convoluted patterns of a Celtic Knot are intriguing.  There is no discernable beginning or end and are thought to represent the eternal nature of our relationship with God.

So often our personal conversations with God are interwoven and convoluted and seem to have no beginning and no end!

But then our lives are complex and convoluted and our relationship with God has no beginning and no end!  Choose a starting point - follow the pattern and offer to God all the problems and anxieties you face.

Saint Anselm (c. 1033-1109)

A Call to Meditation

Come now, little man,
turn aside for a while from
your daily employment
escape for a moment from
the tumult of your thoughts.
Put aside your weighty cares,
let your burdensome distractions wait,
free yourself awhile for God
and rest awhile in him.
Enter the inner chamber of your soul,
shut out everything except God
and that which can help you in seeking him
and when you have shut the door, seek him.
How, my whole heart, say to God,
"Lord, I seek your face,
Lord, it is your face I seek".

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 has probably been set to music and paraphrased more than any other part of the Bible.  This version from Japan, written in the mid 20th century, gave a new perspective on the beautiful words especially for those who dwell in the midst of urban chaos.

Psalm 23 For Busy People
By Toki Miyashina

Icons

Icons are flat pictures, usually painted in egg tempera on wood, but they are also found in ivory, mosaic and other materials, to represent the Lord, Mary the mother of Jesus or other saints. 

For protection they are frequently, especially in Russia, covered with a metal shield on which the outline of the clothes are carved but leave the hands and face free to reveal the painting underneath. 

During the 5th century they became common in the Eastern Church. 

An Icon is more than just a piece of art but rather a meeting point between the divine and the human – a place of prayer.

"The Western Trinity": In this 19th century Russian Icon, God is represented as an old man, Jesus is the young man and the Holy Spirit is symbolised by a dove.

The Father is my hope!

The Son is my refuge!

The Holy Spirit is my protection!

All Holy Trinity, glory to you!

© The Glenstal Book of Icons
 

The earliest Christian art was mainly symbolical and God the Father was seldom depicted.  Christ was represented as a fish (Ichthus) or a young shepherd, a ship symbolised the church, an anchor hope or salvation, and a peacock immortality.

Interdependence

O God, you have bound us together in this bundle of life;

give us grace to understand how our lives depend

on the courage, the industry, the honesty and integrity

of our fellow [men]; that we may be mindful of their needs,

grateful for their faithfulness, and faithful in our responsibilities to them;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Reinhold Niebuhr 1892 – 1971

Reinhold Niebuhr was one of the foremost theologians of the 20th Century. The son of a reformed pastor he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a pastor in the United Church of Christ in Detroit. He left there to join the staff of Union Theological Seminary, New York where he continued to struggle with the issue of how a traditional Christian faith could be related to the modern world. His best-known prayer, now much adapted, is known as ‘The Serenity Prayer’:

O God, grant us the serenity

to accept what cannot be changed,

the courage to change what can be changed,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Amen

Remember...

   
by ChristArt.com