Hello –
In less than 2 weeks the days start getting longer again. Soon, we’ll be in Epiphany when we celebrate the spread of the light of Christ. One way to participate in that light is to pray.
I will be focusing on prayer in the first quarter of 2020. On Wednesday, February 26th, Ash Wednesday, right after the evening service, I will be teaching a daily prayer that has become the center of my spiritual life and the center of the spiritual lives of at least five other people at St. Paul’s. It is “O God, send me this day to do the work you have given me to do, to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart.”
The prayer is the first of 3 prayers, 3 games and a song, all of which are aimed towards living life “with gladness and singleness of heart.” I will be teaching these seven practices through Lent.
The key to it all is prayer. If, by February, you are not yet in the rhythm of 20 minutes a day of prayer, I will ask you to tape the prayer to your bathroom mirror and say it after you brush your teeth in the morning. If you are in that rhythm, I will ask you to pray it at the end of each morning prayer time.
Backing up to the beginning of the year, I will be offering Basic Discipleship on Saturday mornings and Sundays after the 10am service. Basic Discipleship is when I coach people into the rhythm of 20 minutes of daily prayer.
I know, you’re busy and distracted right now with all the things of December. But I hope this email has planted a seed that will bear beautiful fruit in the new year.
Join us Sunday after the 10am service as we sing Christmas Carols at the San Rafael Health Care Center- a beautiful annual tradition.
Christmas services are, as always, 5pm and 10:30pm Christmas Eve and 10am Christmas morning followed by a pot luck feast hosted by the Martins in Duncan Hall.