Hello –
In both cases, the words mean something specific. Prayer means being by yourself for 20 minutes each day to pray to God in a way that works for you. For most people, that means either Christian mediation such as Centering Prayer or praying a Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer. Morning Prayer done in its entirety takes about 20 minutes. (I have one pager of the 7 most helpful tips for getting into and maintaining a rhythm of prayer. Email me at c.h.mrtn@gmail.com for a copy.)
Service means service of the poor for an hour a week. By the poor, we mean the list of people Jesus calls “the least” in a famous section of the Gospel of Matthew. He says, intensely identifying with the poor, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
Furthermore, most at St. Paul’s focus on one of 5 groups:
• Many visit those in prison through our Death Row Ministry or the Kairos weekend experience.
• During the school year, many serve hot breakfast at the County Community School for probationary youth with our Teen Success Breakfast.
• A Faithful crew leads worship twice a month late Sunday mornings at the Rafael Health Center.
• Individuals and our Youth Group serve the homeless through St. Vincent de Paul, Ritter Center and Marin Street Chaplaincy.
• A crew is working on establishing a housing community for young families we intend to call St. Monnica’s Mutual Housing Community.
All 5 are open for you to explore. And there are other local options too, of course. The point is to be persistent and take your time until you find the way of connecting with those on the margins that makes the most sense for you. The same is true of prayer. There is a way to pray that will feed you. Stay with it until you find it. I’ll be offering Basic Discipleship, which includes coaching on prayer, again in the fall.
So take your next step in one of these two practices this summer. Call if you want help connecting.
Finally, our neighbors at Nativity will be offering a Beatles Mass this Sunday at 10am, You are welcome to Come Together with them by taking the Long and Winding Road up Ellen drive to the Fool on the Hill, or I mean the church on the hill.