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12 noon in the Worship
Room
The Vienna Baptist Church diaconate provides this
copy of the prayer service for those unable to attend.
Transform
v. & n./ v./ 1a tr. Make a thorough or dramatic change in the
form, outward appearance, character, etc. n. The product of transformation.
--Oxford Dictionary
Responsive Reading
| Leader: |
Know this: God is God and we
are not. |
| Congregation: |
God formed us; we did not form
God. |
| Leader: |
We are God’s people, |
| Congregation: |
and God can transform us. |
| Leader: |
Quietly, O God, by ways of your
own, enter into our hearts in this hour of prayer. Lead us
to the point of commitment, by which we may gather courage
and love to apply your grace for this time of change and transformation.
Though we come from a world of suspicion and resistance to
change, grant us trust and confidence in one another that
we may dive deeper into all that you have for us, O God. We
seek your leadership for the next forty days of transformation,
both for ourselves and for our faith community. |
Hymn: “Have
Thine Own Way, Lord”
Scripture Readings
“So then, my brothers, because of God’s great mercy
to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice
to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is
the true worship that you should offer. Do not conform yourselves
to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly
by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know
the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and
is perfect.” (Romans 12: 1–2, Today’s English
Version)
"All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered
faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit,
transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory."
(2 Corinthians 3:18, Today's English Version)
Reflection
(Silently read the following, reflect, and pray.)
Community is a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual
knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves, but for one another.
Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of
others more important than our own. In Philippians 2:4 we read,
“Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to
the interests of others.” The question, therefore, is not
“How can we make community?” but “How can we
develop and nurture giving hearts?” (Henri Nouwen, Bread
for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith, Jan. 23 page.
San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1997.)
Transformation involves change, as is indicated in the definition
above. Jesus said that if we want to follow him, we must deny
(disown) ourselves (Mark 8:34). This means abandoning our old
selves; but we do not do the transforming—God does.
Unison Reading
(John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer, or Prayer of Self-Denial)
I am no longer my own, but Yours.
Use me as You choose, rank me alongside whoever You choose;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for You, or laid aside for You,
raised up for You, or brought down low for You;
let me be full or let me be empty;
let me have all things, let me have nothing;
with my whole heart I freely choose to yield all things
to Your ordering and approval.
So now, God of glory, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, You are mine,
and I am Your own.
Music for Meditation and Prayer
(Listen to five minutes of meditative music at this time.)
Benediction
May God take your mind and think through it; may God take your
lips and speak through them; and may God take your heart and set
it on fire through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Additional prayers for devotional reading
God give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot
be changed,
courage to change the things which should be changed
and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other;
living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and
supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen
-- Serenity
Prayer (circa 1942) by Reinhold Niebuhr
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
--Prayer
of St. Francis of Assisi
O Lord, my God, I give you my freedom,
my memory, my reason, my will.
Whatever skills I master, whatever knowledge I acquire,
whatever talents I possess,
I surrender it all to you, my maker and my King.
Your love is wealth enough,
O Lord; give me that, and I ask nothing more.
-- Prayer of
Dedication by St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits,
who lived from 1491 to 1556
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. …
(Read this prayer by Thomas Merton online in the copyrighted book,
Thoughts
in Solitude, p. 79. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.)
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