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A Reflection on Prayer: What, When, Where, Who and Why? |
Prayer is complicated yet simple. Prayer for me used to be rote, prayers we learn as children and the Lord's Prayer. After becoming a Daughter of the King in 1995, I learned many different kinds of prayer, such as intercessory prayer, healing prayer, soaking prayer, bullet prayer, centering prayer, praying the labyrinth and praying the Anglican Rosary. The possibilities are endless, but need not overwhelm us.
What is prayer? Prayer, put simply, is a conversation with God. This conversation can take many forms depending on the situation. It can be a one way monologue on our part where we tell or ask God what we need. It can be a simple recitation of rote prayers. It can be a dialogue between God and us when we open our hearts to God and listen for His response, or perhaps we open ourselves to His presence and listen for Him to speak to us. This type of prayer is the one that takes the most practice, listening for God to speak to us. Prayer takes many forms, such as adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, where we intercede for others or petition God for our own needs. Sometimes in my personal prayer time, I utilize all of these and finally end with quiet time listening for God's response.
When and where do we pray? I would surmise that the greatest amount of prayer takes place on Sunday mornings around the world when Christians gather corporately to participate in church services. Because Daughters of the King take vows to pray daily, they typically have special prayer times, be it early in the morning to start the day, which is my preference, or at the close of the day. Many pray throughout the day as prayer needs arise, perhaps when they see a homeless person on the street, an ambulance with flashing lights or any seemingly dangerous situation. We may give thanks for a beautiful spring day, a phone call from a friend, or a positive compliment that someone has shared with us. All good and perfect gifts come from above, and we are called to give God thanks at all times, not just in church or just for our meals.
Who can pray? Prayer is not only for clergy, those in lay ministry or the DOK. We are all called to pray. Prayer is our connection to the Father or our bridge to the Father through Jesus Christ. Many are challenged by the practice of prayer thinking that they have to do it "right" when there is no true right or wrong way. Likewise, there is not right or wrong posture for praying. The Father knows our hearts, and He is glorified when we make an effort to communicate with Him. He is pleased when we acknowledge Him in all things and in all our ways. Everyone can pray. "Let everyone who has breath praise the Lord." It is just that simple.
Why pray? Besides being called into communion with the Father, prayer gives us peace. So many times in our lives we are in the midst of situations in which we have no control. These circumstances can many times be overwhelming, infuriating and stressful. If we truly have no control, all we can do is pray, give control to the Holy Spirit and let the stress, anger or hurt go. We must trust that He is in control. Being able to give up control to the Holy Spirit is very liberating and peaceful. He is the omnipotent, omniscient Prince of Peace. When we pray and give up control to Him, we find peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Chesley Vohden, Daughters at Large Chair |
| The Wind of the Spirit |
 | Dora receives cross from Bishop Filadelfo in
Rio de Janeiro |
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Christina Rossetti
As DOK president I feel I occupy a sky box from which to glimpse the wake of the Spirit of God sweeping not only across our own country but across the globe. The weekly envelope I receive from the National Office usually includes new chapter applications. They come from widely different places; recently an application from Haiti and another from Malawi came in the same envelope, along with several from the US.
In February we rejoiced to learn that Shawnee Irwin had presented the charter of the first DOK chapter in India at the Thanksgiving service of the Diocese of Durgapur. Shawnee writes that she will return next year and encourage those women to train others. Last month we heard from Joyce Pipkin that there are now 299 Daughters in Haiti in 15 chapters-and on the phone yesterday she told me that Judith, the national president elected in November, has already started two more study groups! The Spirit of God is moving in India, in Haiti, in Malawi, in Honduras, in Brazil and across the United States, calling women to support each other in prayer, in service, in witness to their Lord.Early in April I was present when three new Daughters took their vows in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the Church of the Mediator. As Bishop Filadelfo admitted them, transferred three long time Daughters and installed the new Cristo Rei chapter, I knew that the wind of the Spirit was passing through that congregation. In the same way, as I met in Porto Alegre with Daughters from the six chapters in that area, as well as Daughters from Pelotas, farther south, I was deeply touched by the extraordinary works of mercy the chapters described to me. Many present had been faithful Daughters for a long time. Their welcome to me was exceedingly thoughtful and generous-the authentic hospitality that flows from loving, thankful hearts. It seemed very clear that God the Holy Spirit was drawing us together from far places through the love we share for our King and Saviour.
One of the great blessings of connecting across geographical and ethnic boundaries is the way it expands our vision and strengthens our faith. The North Carolina women who have visited Durgapur were greatly inspired by the Christian women they met in India. The US Daughters who went to Haiti for last November's assembly couldn't wait to tell their chapters about the Daughters in Haiti. Two Council members recently visited Honduras, and were blessed by Daughters there. I'm praising God for the Daughters in Brazil. When we hear each other's stories, we marvel at the extraordinary way God sweeps through our lives and gifts us with new friendships-and we celebrate God's goodness and steadfast love with joy!
Grace Sears, President |
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Love And Obey With The Help Of The Holy Spirit
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I received the following story in my email a few weeks ago and thought it would be appropriate for this article. This is how a doctor explained death to one of his patients:
A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said, 'Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side.' Very quietly, the doctor said, 'I don't know,' 'You don't know? You are a Christian and you don't know what's on the other side?' The doctor was holding the handle of the door; on the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness. Turning to the patient, the doctor said, 'Did you notice my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened, he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing... I know that my Master is there and that is enough.'
We are living in a time in which we are scared and we would like some answers for our safety and for our security. And the only security we have is to trust that the Master is there for us. A personal relationship with God is based on love. What is the test of love? How do we know when there is real love in any relationship? We know when it is given freely with the only goal of the happiness of the person love is given to.
For us as followers of Jesus and in our journey of faith we know that God loves us and wants our happiness and we know that our perfect happiness is to be in a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit. To test that love is to obey the will of God.
In our journey of responding to God's love, we fail so many times in our response and instead of doing the will of God, we end up doing our own will, hurting the God we so much want to love. This is the tension we live every single day, struggling between doing the will of God or our own will.
We do the same in our personal relationships: children with their parents and vice-versa, husband with their wives and vice-versa, even among the members of the congregations we are a part of. We say we love those persons and we cause them pain. It shows that to love is not an easy task.
This is the reason why Jesus does not leave us to struggle alone with the commandment of loving God, our neighbor and ourselves. He promised to send us a helper: The Holy Spirit. The word used is parakletos which is really a difficult word to translate. The word used is Comforter, but that isn't a good translation. It really means someone who is called in.
A parakletos might be a person called in to give witness in a court in someone's favor; he might be an advocate called in to plead the cause of someone under a charge which would issue in serious penalty; he might be an expert called in to give advice in some difficult situation; he might be a person called in when, for example, a company of soldiers were depressed and dispirited to put new courage into their minds and hearts.
Always a parakletos is someone called in to help in time of trouble or need. We often talk of being able to cope with things. That is precisely the work of the Holy Spirit. He takes away our inadequacies and enables us to cope with life. The Holy Spirit substitutes victorious for defeated living.
We all have a difficult task: to love God, to love one another and to love self, but Jesus promised to send us someone to help us with this task, the parakletos. He will guide us as to what to do and enable us to do it, to make the right choice in doing the will of God.
Today we live in a world where the Holy Spirit is not recognized and many people live as if there is no God, or know only about an impersonal God. These persons see only what they want to see. The decisions we have to make for God's honor and glory could be difficult to understand by those who do not recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit. The strength of a family, a congregation lies in precisely that formula: love can only be put in practice with the help of the Holy Spirit.
As we make our journey of faith, we are faced with challenges and doubts, especially when we don't know what lies ahead. Love challenges us to take risks, to take them in His name and to know that He will always be there to guide us. Love takes away the fear of losing, and put in it place: 'gaining.' The only fear we should have is to lose the Master.
Bishop Romero, National Chaplain
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| Masters Fund Ingathering - Pentecost | | The Master's Fund was established at the Order's National Convention in September, 1922. The Ingathering date is Pentecost (June 12th this year) in loving commemoration of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Presently, three types of grants are given from this fund: Provincial Grants, Continuing Education Grants and Master's Fund Scholarships. If you would like to donate online, press here. |
| Storms in the South | |
Donations for victims of the recent storms:
1. Tuscaloosa church: Assistance point for the Tuscaloosa community
Christ Church
DOK Chapter: St Margaret Scotland
605 Lurleen B Wallace Blvd N
Tuscaloosa, AL 35401-1791
2. Episcopal Relief and Development
Donate at http://www.er-d.org
For more information and updates see the Diocese of Alabama web site at http://dioala.org.
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Province Presidents Province I Donna Abramov donnaabramov@doknational.org
Email the National Office at dok1885@doknational.org or Call 770-517-8552 |
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