Christian Prayer thread

[Dutchoma]

NIGHT PRAYER

Comfort me with Your love O God
Wrap me up in Your strong embrace
Shelter me from the storm O Lord
Envelop me in Your tender care
By day I pour out my heartbreak to You
By night I give you my racing thoughts
In You I take refuge
In You I will not be afraid
For you hold me strong, You hold me safe
Calm my fearful heart O God
Still my anxious mind O Lord
For all my life is found in You
All my being is given to You
All my hope begins in You

Prayer found on web.dawesvillecps.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/17th-September.pdf

I found this prayer on Facebook and tought it was a beautiful way to start the new prayer thread.

There was a beautiful picture with it too, but I don’t know how to transfer that.

26 hours in one almighty meltdown. mine and the phone light has stopped flashing, and gone to steady. it may be charging but I daren't annoy it by checking as the bloody thing could have another meltdown ands refuse to work.

must get all my contacts off it tomorrow and spend time sending as much as I can via email to get as much as possible off hte phone. there are videos on there for assessment purposes. (medical assessments)

grace

Dear all

Grace - welcome. I'm new, too, to the thread. Praying for you and your mum and that you carry on being able to be, as you put it so well, around 'good'. Becca is right. After a month, visits etc can tail off but of course grief goes on, in fits and starts, very much longer than that. Hopefully, you'll find that it won't be too, too long before that kind of physical ache (I remember constant chest pains when my dad died) that you might be feeling will recede.

Becca - are you still able to rest decently after your hospital visit earlier this week?

Thanks Oma for your kind enquiry. Sorry, I haven't updated til now. Yes, police were able to tell me that DS had been c 700 miles away, using his card. Then, yesterday, we heard that he'd travelled south again and was using his card in another city. But, as he's not, according to the police 'high risk', the bank won't now release any more information. There are missing people alerts around the place but no-one really knows where to focus as he keeps (true to form - very much part of his condition) moving with no direction, no purpose other than to move around and be as far away from a hospital, or other institutional setting, as possible. Still under the section but we're worried that if he's missing for much longer (just over 2 weeks now), they may try to discharge the section in order to release his bed. Have a meeting, finally, with his community mental health team on Monday to discuss.

Sadly, all this provoked an argument between DH and me this morning and DH has stormed out of the house, telling me that I am 'on my own'. Another DC lives at home - knows not a lot and does't want to - and another lives some distance away. I'm very close to these DCs indeed but somehow, and for historical reasons (growing up with DS), they would not want me to even broach the subject of DS' mental health and that he's missing. One friend at work knows and is supportive - but that's it.

Prayers please that DH will return soon and calmly and that we can resume our efforts together.

BES. I know little about phones but I have thrown myself on the mercies of specialist repair shops before, especially when I haven't wanted to loose data etc.

To all of you - a good and peaceful day.

masie I'm sorry to hear the effect the stress of all this is having on you and your DH. It must be so hard for all of you.

For the first time in a very long time I've not gone to the first advent service. I thought of it but couldn't face it. I feel like I've no strength to do anything.

thanks for the welcome, sorry for everyone's troubles. Hopefully we can all give each other a mental helping hand here.

Becca, I think I met you on the "hot weather" threads as my flat is a sauna, but NC since then. sorry your health issues made you miss the service. I hope you can do something at home.

The Advent Sunday service was the last service I gave up at the ‘old’ church as it was very special to me. Since then I have had very little contact with it and that was two years ago.

I missed the service at the ‘new’ church as well this morning as I have a stinking cold.
Masie that situation seems very hard on you, especially as your husband and the other two children are not ‘with you’ in your worry about your missing son. The hardest bit of this must be ‘being on your own’ in this and my prayer for you is that you will feel the peace of God being ‘with you’, so that you are not alone. I firmly believe that God has His hand on your son too, whatever the evidence to the contrary. I’m glad that you have evidence that he is still alive.
Grace I do feel for your mother as I had to learn to be on my own too. In a way it was ‘easier’ for me as I had to be the carer in our marriage for eight years before my husband died. Your mother will feel very lost if your father was the one who ‘did it all’ but gradually I hope she will, with your help, be able to take up the reins of her own life without being totally dependant on you.

grace I'm still having heat issues in mine! My neighbours have ramped their heating up loads - I've none on and a fan going and it's 17c in here! It's not even that cold outside.

I got a lot of grief from that thread, I know some complained on it and got chased off, but I also got PMs from people as well! You were all so kind supporting me it meant so much.

I've actually discovered this week a channel on YouTube that records mass every day and I've been listening/participating in that in the evening, I'm not Catholic but I've been finding it very comforting. I've only managed a few this week but it's been really helpful so I'm doing that today.

Dutchoma, thanks, hope you get rid of the cold asap.

Becca - that sounds good. I probably need to start a habit or pattern. My mum prays first thing in the morning.

That sounds good Becca.

Is your phone sorted, BES? We have a spare Windows phone knocking around if you'd like it.

Welcome Grace, you are very welcome here. I am so sorry about your dad, such a short time and will pray for you and your mum.

A prayer for Advent Sunday, and those of us who weren't in church for whatever reason:

Father,
On this day of waiting
May we look through our darkness
And perceive those faint glimpses of light
The hope you bring,
The soothing of despair,
The calming in our deepest places
May we wait with patience
And wait with bated breath
For you to come
Streaming through the darkness
Trailing glorious light and
Pouring over us with perfect peace.
In Jesus' name

Amen.

Thank you for the prayer, MHD. As I'm waiting for news about my missing son, I've read the prayer aloud and it's helping, already, to bring me some peace. Police have just rung - no news but it is good that they're keeping in touch.
Ome - thank you. I have to believe that God is holding DS and am so grateful for everyones' prayers .And, yes, get better soon.
Becca you want that heating issue sorted asap. Before last Christmas, the boiler broke and we couldn't find an engineer until after the New Year. No heating, no hot water. And during that period DS2 brought a tiny, weeks old, kitten home to join our older one (he found him under a van, freezing, and his owners, whom he tracked, said they didn't want him ..). Also, at that time, DS1 (the one who's missing) came back into our lives after a long period of absence. Seeing him in the state he was in at that time was heartbreaking but at least he knew and continues to know that he's got our back - for ever. So, yes, a memorable Christmas and the difficulties were exacerpated by living in a very cold house. Prayers, as I write this, for anyone, anywhere living with fuel poverty all year round. A shocking state of affairs in 2018.

Thanks mhd. I have a spare phone that will just do calls and texts, borrowed from sil. ex needs to contact wiley fox and get them to repair/replace. I am naming and shaming. everywhere.

I should be cleaning and catching up on washing today but have been shattered. most of yesterday was taken up with school event.

I have hoovered hall and landing and kitchen and one bedroom but am a bit tiired so not got as much done as I hoped.

Hello. Long time no see. Good to see some old friends and some new faces. And sorry for the long absence - RL has been very full-on and I just find it too easy to waste time online... But I'm going to try to post a prayer a day for Advent, so here I am.

Prayers for all on this thread, but especially for:
Masie - for you and for your DS;
Oma - get well soon;
Grace - for you and for your mum in your grief and loss, that you may know peace and comfort;
Becca - for better health and peace of mind;
BES - for stress-free phone charging;
MHD - for your continued recovery
... and for anyone I've forgotten, with apologies... I'll try to keep up from now on.

The Collect for Advent Sunday
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of
darkness, and put on the armour of light, now in the time of
this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit
us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come
again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the
dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.

Lord, we are all waiting - for illness to pass, for grief to lessen, for anxiety to be stilled, for a loved-one to return, for peace in our lives and in the world - grant us patience for the waiting and hope for the future, in the small things for which we wait, and in our collective waiting for your coming in glory. Amen.

... and the fecking phone to charge...

nice to see you tuo.

Haha, BES, I was including that under 'peace in our lives'! Has it charged?

Prayers continuing for all. I wanted to share Rowan Williams' beautiful poem, 'Advent Calendar', with prayers for all (on this thread and beyond, known to us and known only to God) who feel overwhelmed by loss, and cold, and dark at this time. He will come...

Advent Calendar

He will come like last leaf's fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud's folding.

He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.

© Rowan Williams

Thanks TUO, that is very beautiful.

I’ve just found a most beautiful setting of those words (with pictures) by Philip Ledger on YouTube.

7 days until fully charged, apparently.

Time to contact the manufacturer I think bes sounds like the battery is gone.

Unless you already have of course. Sorry, losing track of things at the moment!

Tuo, that's lovely, thank you so much.

travelling for a funeral today with the children and a non charging phone. that should be fun.

not

in case someone did not get the sarcasm

Prayers BES. That is going to be a difficult journey.

Prayers for the journey and funeral bes