By The Rev. Melody Perdue
“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” - Corrie Ten Boom
During our Sunday morning virtual services, we offer different
forms of Prayers of the People from our Book of Common Prayer. If you
would like to be added to our parish prayer list and included in our
prayers during the service, please email me at mperdue@easternshorechapel.org.
Names added remain on our prayer list for 30 days, unless you contact
me. We also have a long-term prayer list, holding those with extenuating
needs or circumstances in prayer. If you or a family member will be
deployed for any length of time, we also cover our deployed parishioners
in prayer each Sunday.
Beginning on page 814 of the Book of Common Prayer, are a series of
collects that may assist you in your prayer life. Prayers for the
World, the Church, and in particular, Prayers for our National Life
starting on page 820, provide Spirit-filled words that anchor our hearts
and minds during times of trouble. If you do not have a prayer book at
home, you can use the online version at www.bcponline.org (Click on Prayers and Thanksgivings to find the collects). A great app for your phone that I use daily is Mission St. Clare. It includes Daily Office prayers and scripture readings for Morning and Evening, Noonday Prayer, and Compline.
Corrie Ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place, challenges us to
ponder whether prayer is something we turn to when we exhaust all other
resources, or if it’s the directing force of our life. During this
Season of Epiphany, may we offer our lives and our wills to the leading
of the Holy Spirit, and may our lives shine forth the light of Christ to
the world.
“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.” - Psalm:141:2