Christian Coffee House - Prayer/Chat thread. No rubbish church coffee allowed.

[Madhairday]

With the latest prayer thread coming to an end, we thought we would create a new thread for prayer and general chat too - we had chat threads running for years alongside prayer threads, and we thought it would be great to combine them. I try and collate some of the prayer requests from the last thread in the next few days. In the meantime, dive in! Lurkers/newbies - you are welcome to post. Feel free to start any chat subject about Christianity, church, worship etc, and do share any prayer needs.
Would love to hear from those who were on previous threads and haven't been around for a while, too. Come and let us know how you are.

Hello all, haven't popped in for a while. We have been watching the CofE services online and (foolish me) agreed to post letters to the members of our congregation who haven't got email (small church thankfully!)

Thank you for that prayer madhairday, it’s perfect!

I joined our church zoom service for the first time today. It was wonderful!

Thank you for that lovely prayer @Madhairday. It's perfect for today

May you find moments of joy

As he takes you by the hand
And leads you forward into hope.

Thanks for that prayer, Madhair. These lines just leapt off the page at me. I’m going to try and carry them forward into this week.

Did you write the prayer madhairday?

Thanks all. @StrawberryJam200 yes I did. I'm praying it again now because I've had a really grim day today, the first day I've been really down with this shielding lark and really wanted to hug dh so badly and couldn't. And fell out with DD and just felt rubbish. The livestream of church was a good point though. Now I'm praying this again and looking for those sparks of hope Jesus brings.
I'll try and do a prayer every day of holy week.

And we’ll pray for you. So you’re shielding but in a household with DH and DD who sounds probably a teen (wild guess there!) ?

Sorry I realise regulars on here probably know your situation, but I’m a newb!

We’ve never had a time like this and it’s only now that we realise how important physical contact is. There is a picture going round of Pooh and Piglet, sitting next to each other on a log. It was first posted in 2019 and it is very sweet. But it would not be possible for people to sit on a log together and be of silent support It is very hard for people who live alone at the best of time, this physical contact being swept away is very hard.

It is so hard Oma. Two weeks in and I'm a mess. Sending my love to everyone here and some unmumsnetty hugs too.

Strawberry - yes, in house with dh and two teens, dd19 home from uni and Ds 16. Shielding from them as got the letter and supposed to be 2 or 3 metres away at all times, can't sleep with dh etc. Even have to avoid being in the same room for long and lots of rules about own towels, own cutlery, crockery etc and preparing food. Have to be so careful even about touching doorframes, banisters etc and remembering to wash hands. So mostly living upstairs in my bedroom and study. Thank goodness for the garden on sunny days.
I've been managing to get some work done on my next book which is great and at least passes the time and gives me some purpose. My usual marketing job has dried up at present.

What about you strawberry, how are you coping?

I’m OK thanks, madhairday, but wasn’t two weeks ago when I started having (mild) symptoms, went into a bit of a panic then, esp as am a single parent. Have two early teens so they wouldn’t have been helpless had it progressed to my being bedridden for a few days anyway. But thank the Lord, it didn’t. DS has had mild symptoms too.
I just wish I could get round to praying more, the one thing that matters and one of the hardest things to do! But that’s getting better.

Thank you so much for your prayer yesterday, I shared it with several church and other friends, and also Christian friends who’ve tragically lost their young adult son to Cv, and received many positive comments about it.

Are we allowed to know what your book is about?

I'm so glad the prayer helped but so sorry to hear about your friend's son. How utterly tragic :(

My book is mainly about identity in God's upside down kingdom, and how we often decide we are useless or have to be useful to God/others and kind of turning that narrative on its head. Getting a proposal together to send to my publishers, yikes!

We need to pray for Boris :(

Just popping in to say hello. Was lovely to meet Dutch Oma again in person, and MHD and I have met several times at New Wine. I'm currently furloughed, but still busy - prepping a brief talk for our student group, then a longer talk for a local Bible study. I'm definitely going to be shorter than usual as I will be recording it to be sent out to the group. Not got any commentaries either so will be relying on those online!

To answer the questions bar drinking tea and liking knitting I'm the polar opposite of DO - give me a band and worship songs 99% of the time, but I can appreciate sung liturgy and incense on occasion.

Yay @PandaG it's so good to see you here and have company in the charismatic corner I hope your preparation has gone well.

I've been spending a lot of time helping dh prepare for our Easter services and recording videos and prayers etc. He's attempting a crowd sourced proclamation for Easter day - Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, , alleluia - getting people to send clips of themselves saying that, and putting them all together for the FB live. We have several different languages so it should be amazing!

A poem for Maundy Thursday

A lonely garden
Draped in a starry night
A soul ripped apart
Yet not my will but yours
His spirit shrieks his fear
His fear shatters his soul
His body trembles
Overwhelmed with the weight
Of us

Yet perfect love streams through the night
Casting waves of freedom
And the garden is alive with whispers of hope
And our fear is contained
Within the wild borders
of holy treasure

Bless you all.

Lovely prayer, thank you.

Like the sound of the crowd sourced acclamation!!

I also like the sound of the crowd sourced acclamation.

My church is...not very techy, although they have put a few things on YouTube lately...in some ways it is good because I have been going on a "virtual tour" of other local churches who are streaming their services, I never would have done this IRL. I miss the tea and biscuits after the service though, and the people -- I was only just getting to know them.

Thanks @GoofyGoob for recommending the YouVersion Bible App, this is much more helpful for me than the other app I was using, thanks for the suggestion.

Have a good Easter weekend, everyone.

Such a strange feeling- may be going to live stream service at 3pm but oddly dislocated.

I watched a service this morning which was put together by someone who was on this thread years ago under the user name ToccatandFudge among others. Very good. This afternoon I listened to the St John Passion, which I have sung in, so that was quite special. But dislocated is a good word, nothing seems quite real.

PamDW how is your father?

Prayer for Good Friday

Lord of life
When we remember the agony you suffered for us
We are utterly stunned by such love.
We reflect on how you were torn for us
How every part of you became pain, and sin, and sadness,
For us.
We bow in repentance at the pain we caused you
Yet so thankful at your abundant grace.
As we look upon your wondrous cross
May we throw away all our pride,
All our crowns,
And fall at your feet, broken,
Yet made more whole than we can ever imagine.

Thank you madhairday. I was finding it quite hard to engage with Good Friday despite watching online services etc. But praise God, an old friend from a choir I used to sing in randomly sent me his newly recorded version of When I Survey, sung absolutely beautifully, and it brought me to tears. Praise God.

(He’s not a Christian afaik)

I'm not sure what day it is. With recording services and watching services I'm very out of sync. At least the weather is great and I've been able to get on with some gardening.

Hello all. I decided to skip good Friday online mass. There wasn't one at my church. And yesterdays mass of the Lord's supper was cut short by my priest (he posted a part one but no part two on Facebook!) I kept clicking on it all night as I'd got half way through. Didn't feel like it today. I feel a little like I missed the chance to do the whole triduum.

Spent my whole day cleaning so am done in now. My phone beeped with an alarm I was tired so ignored (thought it was a reminder to pray lectio365 app, it wasnt). Then I was reading the comments to the digitalnun blog and someone said about divine mercy. Thankful for the reminder to start praying the divine mercy novena today in time for divine mercy Sunday!

www.theworkofgod.org/Devotns/DivMercy/novena.htm#First Day

Anyone else want to join in? I figure we need it now more than ever before.

Thank you for the Good Friday prayer MHD.

Our church is having 24 hrs of prayer against Covid19, we started at 7pm with a Zoom prayer and worship meeting (for any who wanted to attend) and it worked really well. About 20 of us. I’ve just posted this on our WhatsApp group:
“This reminds me of one of my favourite hymns - The Day Thou Gavest Lord is Ended. This verse is relevant tonight, let’s remember Christians around the whole globe will be asking God’s healing, mercy and light on this situation in the next 24 hours. Our prayers join with theirs:
‘We thank Thee that Thy church, unsleeping,
While earth rolls onward into light,
Through all the world her watch is keeping,
And rests not now by day or night.’ ”