Children from Prep to Year 6 join together to pray, reflect and worship in our regular Chapel services. We open in prayer before engaging our voices and our bodies in a worship song.
Often these songs require significant amounts of coordination to do the actions but the girls are fantastic at this. This week we sang about Jesus being here with us, Jesus being all we need and following where God leads us.
For our reflection last week our focus was on prayer, particularly the Lord’s Prayer and our School Prayer. Douglas the puppet (google Douglas Talks) helped the girls to unpack what is prayer in a fun way. Firstly, prayer is simply talking to God. This is something we can do anywhere, anytime and formal words are not required. Prayer is our way to connect with God and build a relationship with God and can be said aloud or silently in our minds.
In Luke’s Gospel Chapter 11, we see the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus responds with the now familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer which is used in nearly every Christian denomination every week. In our Chapel we spoke about what each line means for us as followers of Jesus and for us as a community at Glennie. I don’t know if Jesus thought that these words as recorded by Luke would end up being the most well-known and frequently recited words of the Gospels when he shared them with his friends at the time. But no matter the original intent it has provided a framework for our prayers ever since.
When we look at each clause through a lens of generosity it helps us to know what we are asking God to teach us.
Rev’d Sharon Mitchell
This pattern of prayer we find in the Lord’s prayer first gives honour and glory to God in all things; focuses our attention on God’s will for us and all people; asks for the daily needs of the world to be provided; and acknowledges our need for forgiveness when we do wrong; we ask for God’s protection in all things and recognise the awesome of God’s presence with us. All of these things can be done using the familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer or any form of words that come to us.
In unpacking our School Prayer, we spoke about its origins. Written by St Ignatius of Loyola this prayer is titled A Prayer for Generosity. When we look at each clause through a lens of generosity it helps us to know what we are asking God to teach us. To serve with generosity, to give and not dwell on the cost to us personally, to fight for justice and stand up for what is right, to work hard and push through things that challenge us and not seek recognition or reward but to labour because what we do honours God and serves the world.
Prayer is so central to daily life and the foundation from which we build fulfilling, generous and spirit-filled lives. Prayer helps us to notice where God is working in each moment and to see God in every person we meet. When we look at the world through prayer we see it through God’s eyes and radiate God’s gifts of love, hope, peace and grace into our communities.
And so we pray:
Teach us good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest:
to give and not to count the cost:
to fight and not to heed the wounds:
to toil and not to seek for rest:
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do Thy will:
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
