Yesterday I started up again--praying, that is. Not to worry. God and I are on speaking terms, have been for a long time now. But for a few weeks around the clergy-killing run-up to Christmas which coincided this year with the most horrendous cold I've had in a decade, I let regular morning devotions slip.

What struck me this time--because I'm rather good at losing my prayer rhythm--was how easily it came back, how those first words of our Morning Prayer liturgy felt like slipping into a favorite pair of blue jeans, those jeans that are soft and broken in just right and fit you perfectly. Prayer was that comforting for me yesterday morning, so much so that I didn't waste any time with mea culpas.

Instead, I was reminded that prayer is a practice--and practice pays off. In the same way that years of piano scales create muscle memory that's hard to lose, years of intentional--if imperfect--daily prayer reshape us in ways that endure.

Our Anglican tradition of common prayer is particularly helpful in framing prayer as practice. When you say the same words day after day, they tend to sink in. They take up residence inside you. They become like a well-worn trail that leads back through yourself to the Divine. As a hospice volunteer, I learned that even those falling into the chasm of dementia can, with help, string the words of childhood prayers together into a lifeline that calms and comforts.

In 1 Thessalonians, we're encouraged to pray without ceasing. Morning Prayer has a beginning and end, but its daily practice sets mind and heart in His direction. Sure, He's heard it all before. But He's not one to complain.

pray your way home @ www.trinityspokane.org

  

Join us this Sunday @ 10am for Holy Eucharist as we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. Sunday School for the kids and coffee hour for everyone else will follow the service. And this Sunday @ 7pm join us for a service of evening prayer.

inw cursillo ultreya! group reunion 

INW Cursillo will host an Ultreya! Group Reunion on Sunday, January 8, 2012 at Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, 15319 E. 8th Ave., Spokane Valley. Potluck dinner starts @ 2pm followed by a program from 2:30-4:00pm. Share good food, good fellowship, good singing and build Christian community. All are welcome.

 

 

From the April 21, 1940 bulletin

If we can't go easily and naturally from our dancing to our prayers there s something wrong with one or the other. I have even known a parish -- not Holy Trinity -- where people coming to a card party would stop in at the Church to say their prayers. It never seemed, somehow, to interfere with their fun.

 

Thanks to Julia Bertaut for her research and organizational efforts in our archives.  

 

 

1.8: 10am - family friendly worship followed by sunday school

1.8: 7pm - evening prayer 

1.11: 5:30pm - ht dinner table

1.15: 10am - family friendly worship with agape potluck 

1.15: 7pm - taize

1.18: 5:30pm - ht dinner table 

1.22: 10am - family friendly worship followed by sunday school

1.22: 7pm - evening prayer 

1.24: 12:30pm - book group
1.25: 5:30pm - ht dinner table
1.29: 10am - family friendly worship followed by sunday school
1.29: 7pm - evening worship
1.31: 12:30pm - book group



Please pray for:

• Sharon Kjensmo who is in the ICU recovering from pneumonia;
• Ben & Hillary;
• all those beginning new terms of political office;
• Julia & Mahli, our Sunday School teachers;
• our West Central partners in ministry, especially this week The Oak Tree.

Please give thanks for:

• all those who gave so generously of their time, talent, and treasure at Holy Trinity last year;
• the many committed volunteers who reveal Jesus to our guests at HT Dinner Table.