Here’s
a model for intercessory prayer based on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12. It was written by Stasi McAteer, and posted
on Richard Webb’s Clayfire Curator website.
He
writes: Based on the Beatitudes, Stasi
has constructed a community prayer experience that combines both practices into
an organic and seamless whole.
These Intercessory
Prayers make use of a leader who leads the congregation through a series of
congregational responses, periods of silent reflection, and spontaneous silent
prayer. She’s designed this element using a call-and-response form that
eliminates the need for any printed material or projected text.
One of the crucial
aspects of this prayer experience is the frequent periods of silent reflection
following each congregational response. This silence helps the worshiper
process what they’ve just heard and spoken. Before each of these periods of
silence the leader asks worshipers to remember the people Jesus names in each
of the Beatitudes—those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc. In her instructions to the leader,
Stasi asks him or her to make sure the times of silence are “long enough to
promote reflection but not so long that people get restless.”
Intercessory Prayer
based on the Beatitudes
(Matthew 5:3-12)
Leader: Living into the
blessings and challenges of the Beatitudes requires great strength and courage.
We can only reach this goal by grounding ourselves, as a community, in prayer.
As we come before God together, I invite you
into the Beatitudes: into their surprising blessings, and their bold
proclamation of the Kingdom. From the beginning of Christianity, our mothers
and fathers in the faith have relied on these seemingly simple words to guide
their lives, to help them understand God’s will, and to direct them into prayer
for and suffering with the world.
I will read each phrase and invite you to
repeat it. Then I will suggest a focus for a brief time of silent prayer and
meditation.
Brief silence
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
All: Blessed
are the poor in spirit,
for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Remember the poor of our world,
for whom the kingdom of heaven often seems
distant and unattainable.
Silence
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be
comforted.
All: Blessed
are those who mourn,
for
they will be comforted.
Remember those who are in mourning,
who have lost someone or something dear to
them.
Pray for their comfort.
Silence
(pattern
follows….)
~
written by Stasi McAteer, and posted on Richard Webb’s Clayfire Curator website.
http://clayfirecurator.afpwpdev.augsburgfortress.org/2011/09/beatitudes-intercessory-prayer-richard-webb/
