A Sunday Prayer (on Friday)

This is a prayer of preparation, written by an Old Testament scholar to help himself and others enter into the Sabbath rest that God has for each of us. In particular he’s probably writing this prayer for Sunday mornings… but it really could be any morning.

See if you can pray this today… and if you think of it, consider praying it again Sunday morning.

Holy God - in this precious hour, we pause

and gather to hear your word – 

to do so, we break from our work responsibilities 

and from our play fantasies; 

we move from our fears that overwhelm 

and from our ambitions that are too strong

Free us in these moments from every distraction, 

that we may focus to listen, 

that we may hear, that we may change.

• Walter Brueggemann, Pretoria, South Africa, August, 1996