I’m beginning to work my way through Laurence Hull Stookey’s book, Let the Whole Church Say Amen! a Guide for Those Who Pray in Public. It’s a basic text for anybody who leads worship — whether pastor or lay speaker or liturgist or small-group leader — well, when you get right down to it, anybody who prays aloud in a group, especially as a leader of a group’s prayer.
It’s a workbook; most chapters have exercises. I’m leaving it blank, though, so that I can loan it out to whoever wants to borrow it. (Let me know if you want to borrow it.)
I’ll be using this blog to share what I’ve written as I go along, both prayer and reflections. If it’s useful to you, either directly, or as food-for-thought that leads you in different directions from my own, I’m thankful.
The first chapter is “Pure Praise.”
Stookey writes:
“Often we think of prayer primarily as a way of asking God for something. Certainly requests for ourselves or for others are an important part of prayer. But before and beyond that, there is prayer that asks for nothing whatsoever, but simply praises the grandeur and goodness of God.”
And the chapter’s assignment is to “write a prayer of pure praise,” that asks for nothing whatsoever, but simply praises.
Here’s what I wrote today.
God who creates creation, inspires all inspiration,
I (impure) cannot offer you pure praise,
self-broken and other-injured as I am.
Not I, then,
but every grain of sand on every shore sings out your praise,
every wild flower glows with your goodness,
every chestnut seedling, every lilac’s scent,
even lawn-moss and garden weeds
prove your prodigal providence.
Our dog’s leaping, whirling elation upon my (even my!) return
echoes all heaven laughing for pure joy, reflects your faithfulness.
And you
who gave me eyes, nose, tongue, ears, fingers,
and willful wondering wandering self …
your pure image in impure me …
you-in-me resonates, recognizes the pure praise of all creation
and leaps and whirls within me.
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