A     PRAYER SANCTUARY

FOR   NEW   YEAR’S   DAY   2001

Noon until 3 o’clock

Sponsored by

     The     
Alethia Foundation

at the

Center City  Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Greetings and good wishes to you on this New Year’s Day!

Thank you for keeping a reverent silence while you are here.

From time to time, musicians will be making their offering to God,
as an act of worship and a channel of our prayers.

Please do not applaud.

Feel free, however, to speak aloud an "Amen" or word of praise to God, if you are so inclined.

This prayer guide offers some resources for meditation, prepared from an ecumenical Christian perspective.

You are welcomed to use them in any way that may suit your purposes or that is appropriate to your religious tradition. I f you care to, please take it with you.

May the love of God so rest upon you here and now
that you take strength and joy for the year ahead.

For millennia, the spiritual life has been the subject of intense, sustained study in cultures and religions all over the world. On certain points, there seems to be remarkable agreement about how to grow spiritually.

The following suggestions are drawn from Christian tradition, but some have much in common with other faiths. Perhaps some of these strategies and scripture texts will be useful to you today, or in your goals for your spiritual life in the coming year.

TURN       Exodus 3: 1- 12 

Are there burning bushes in your peripheral vision? Certainly, God is trying to speak to you. Like Moses, we need to be alert to signals of the divine nearby, and be prepared to redirect our attention, to shift our whole orientation. In fact, we need to make a daily habit of "turning aside." Although we can, and should, pray anytime, anywhere and know that God is always listening, God deserves more than hasty greeting en route or episodic desperate pleas.

Setting aside our preoccupations, our common pursuits, as Moses does his shoes on holy ground, we can re-center, and recover ourselves by waiting reverently upon God. When we return to our churning, daily business, we will see things anew. When we make the effort, and allow God to come to the center of our attention, everything else will find its place.

BREATHE             Ezekiel 37: 1-14      Acts 2: 1-4

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a mighty wind..."

To make the transition to a state of spiritual attention, concentrate for a few moments on your breathing. Take a few long, slow breaths. Inhale deeply, hold, then slowly release your breath. "Breath" and "Wind" are two of the names of the Holy Spirit. Release the unnecessary tension in your muscles. Sense the air and light in the sanctuary. Let the stillness and protection of this place soak in and comfort you. Let God’s peace and calm, always with you, rise up from within you to your full consciousness.

REMEMBER                   Psalm 145       Psalm 34: 8

Revel in the good things God has given you. Single out and savor blessings that have come to you in the past year, give thanks for them, and see what they may yet show you. Consider God’s mercies to all of us, to our world, and give thanks and praise.

CONFESS                                Psalm 19 

It takes courage to see ourselves as we are. It is, however, liberating. God seeks to deliver us from misery. But the route lies through the truth, and though freeing, it is rarely painless. Let confidence in God’s love supply the courage to let go of sin and failure, into God’s forgiveness.

INTERCEDE                      Matthew 8: 5-13 

...but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.

Pray for others. Go beyond your personal circles, and lift up the powerless, persecuted, oppressed. Look down on our planet from the space shuttle’s distance. Pray for nations, for issues, for the future. Descend again and walk through villages and among people, as Jesus did. Offer your eyes and ears to Jesus, and ask to see as he sees, to hear as he hears, to pray as he prayed, to grieve where he grieved, to rejoice where he rejoiced. Let your heart be broken as his was for those who suffer.

DECLARE             Mark 10: 46-52 

‘What do you want me to do for you?’

It’s a good idea to be frank when talking to God. Speak without fear, freely and honestly. There is nothing to be gained, and much to be lost, by window dressing your prayers. Prissy prayers don’t fool God. God already knows better than you do what’s on your mind, and God understands. So, lay it all out, just like it is; God is not going to be surprised or shocked by anything you have to say. If you’re angry with God, or feeling abandoned, or skeptical, it’s healthier to try to articulate it to God as best you can. Trust God enough to be who you are, and to be where you are, and let God take it from there.

CHANT                      Psalm 141           Matthew 6: 5-8 

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.

Silently recite to yourself a verse of scripture, or phrase of a favorite hymn. Pray the rosary, or repeat the Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison. Repetitions of sacred phrases and prayers are a proven medium of prayer. Such formulas gather and focus the ever-wandering attention. Spiritually speaking, they create a highly conductive field around you. They cleanse our scattered consciousness so that we can receive messages that God is giving. Chanting can usher in a blessed calm when you have difficulty making the transition to a prayerful state.

SEEK                            Matthew 7: 7-11     

In our journeys, the pilgrim’s progress is very much a progress of questions. The art of learning to ask the right questions is an essential element in spiritual growth. Ask not only for what you need, but ask to be shown what to seek. And, again, God will lead and give the growth to all who are willing to trust. Reach for the confidence to ask the questions you have, and to be shown the questions you need to ask.. God seeks the faith that makes us audacious in prayer. Be bold in prayer, according to Christ’s own command, and claim his promises.

LISTEN                                     Matthew 13: 1-43

Perhaps the most difficult stage of prayer is that of silencing our own voices, and fixing the concentration upon God alone. It is not a passive state, but rather is un-busy, undistracted, patient, poised. It’s an acquired skill, to be able to attain this fully alert, attentive state of mind. The breathing and chanting exercises are good preparation for it.. The extraordinary reward, however, is communion with a sacred world which, though it is all around us all the time, is drowned out by the world’s coarse and bullying noise. Jesus often used the phrase, "let those who have ears to hear, hear."   Practicing listening prayer gives us ears to hear.

RECEIVE                            John 10: 10         Luke 17: 11-19 

Before you conclude your time of prayer, be at God’s disposal for a few moments. Before you leave to go out into the world, into a new year, pause to open your arms to whatever God wants to give you here and now. Wait patiently for God to bestow a parting blessing, or to reveal an answer you are seeking. Be still and expectant, so that you may take away with you what St. Francis de Sales called "a spiritual bouquet."

STUDY                 Philippians 4: 5-8    

Apportion your focus wisely. Don’t give away your attention to things unworthy of it. Meditate on what you find in the arts, in music, in literature, in learning. Direct your senses to that which feeds the soul. Take in new ideas and ponder their ambiguities; don’t settle for simple answers to complex questions. Truly beautiful things are usually complicated in interesting ways, and take time. Contemplating them is a spiritual art.

SACRIFICE         2 Samuel 24: 24         Matthew 6: 1-4, 16-24  

Ascetic practices are important to a spiritual training program, and ought not be confined to Lent or to the monastery. Small, private gestures of self-denial can be educational. They can point us to our evasions and self-deceptions. They can help reveal our motivation and dependencies. Giving up an hour of TV for an hour in meditation, letting go of some small luxury for oneself to provide a necessity for another, keeping a fast –such practices have the potential to revive our sense of values, to strengthen our insight, to redirect our attention. They can prompt us to remember monumental sacrifices made for us in Christ’s passion and death.

SERVE                                            Mark 10: 35-45         Matthew 16: 24-26 

Christ overturns all earthly notions of power. He, to whom all authority in heaven and on earth belongs, rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a towel, briskly filled the bowl and knelt to a servant’s ignominious chore. Methodically he washed each disciple’s feet. Life abundant lies not in getting power, but in giving it; not –contrary to worldly wisdom– in obtaining service but in rendering it.

For God alone my soul waits in silence, from him comes my salvation.

O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

                                                                                                Psalm 62: 1, 63: 1-8

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

                                                                                                John 10: 10

Psalm 117

Praise the LORD, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples!

For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!

Philippians 2: 5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Luke 14: 16-24

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, "Come; for everything is ready now."

But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, "I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets." Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets." Another said, "I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come." So the slave returned and reported this to his master.

Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, "Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame." And the slave said, "Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’

Then the master said to the slave, "Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner."’

 Some  Other  Passages  Well  Suited  to  the  Day

Psalm 115                       the Lord remembers us

Psalm 90                         the Lord our dwelling place

Joshua 3: 14-17             crossing the Jordan

2 Kings 4:  1-7                     faith gives abundance

Micah 6:1-8                     what does the Lord require?

Matthew 6: 25-34           first things first, don’t worry

John 1: 1-14                    the Word Incarnate 

1 Thessalonians 5: 12-23             holy counsel 

Luke 9:10-17                faith gives abundance 

Matthew 22: 36-40       the greatest commandment

Many hymns are prayers.  The worship books in the pew racks contain hymns and prayers which may also assist your meditation today.

Clifton Pugh       Glory be to God for Dappled Things    1988         http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/glenn/Museum/Pugh.html      

"Is Praise a Modern Possibility?"  http://www.elca.org/dm/lp/possible.html

Gerard Manley Hopkins - Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things --
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced -- fold , fallow and plow
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

A  Meditation  For  New  Year’s  Day

From one garden exiled, we, by grace, have again another, 
In fallen time, 
Beneath perfection, but beckoned by it, 
Scarcely remembering, more fearing it.

Of my life I am God’s appointed gardener.
And I, by divine decree, govern in this country.
In the province of this still unrevealed self, 
Borders are unfixed,
A trove of all things yet to be 
That I may cultivate, each in its due time, 
Or, may leave unmapped and buried, 
To let others stake, claim and define.

Age advances, and things untried, ungrown, 
Sensed, yet still unknown,
Ask to break ground from below.
What wakens now and longs toward the Light?
All you disciples, you faithful ones,
Communion of water, wine and Word,
Look, please look, with grace-healed eyes:
See a new heaven and a new earth!
Make here a safe, unfenced and peaceful park:
This holy ground wants the work of
Tilling, and protecting, of feeding
And, as well, the work of waiting.

The flow of time, and I, assay this garden.
What, at this season's turning do I discern?
What, at this rotation, cultivate? What ought now lie fallow?
What must I preserve, what plow under?
What rich vines beg to grow,
And what, for them, do I now weed away? 
Free my hands, my thought, my hope
So I may sow some new Eden,
Where, keeping patient gardener’s vigil,
My spirit’s eye grows keen;
Where my ripened judgment fathoms out my valor;
Where love is daily deeper summoned,
And long-concealed strength shows and stretches to sun's summons.

At Creation, Your Word spoke a universe to life,
Letting loose this cosmic garden.
See in the stars the still-exploding, self-evolving forces!
But pending still, these forces packed and closed within us,
So sacred, seeded densely there. 
And will we let them root, then break the surface, and thus brave the world,
Though now unseen and fragile,
Yet fully ceded to our command
With this costly freedom which we flee?
How You delight in manifold movement,
In all things visible and invisible!
How strangely cheerful, waiting,
While we too gingerly scan, stall and postpone.
You, O Lord, neither make nor desire any steady-state but love.
You, whose constancy upholds all our searching vagrancy,
Now come and reign in our desert stasis.

God, smiling, mothering,
Invites us still again, to partner in Her pleasure,
And coaxing gently, dares us to unleash our lives
To the planted promise She Herself has bedded there.
Come, now, my dear daughters; and you too, my dear sons.
You have Myself in Christ:  Go!  Go, take His hand.
Blood and Spirit have I poured out for you:
Redemption and Escort now have you both.
Get along with you then, dear children.
Dream dreams, see visions.
That’s the way of it, my dear, too-timid ones, lay hold!
Show now what you will raise
When you let My Light shine on your uncertain course,|
And disclose to you how,
In the rumbling darkness
Crushed in the creases of your soul
Germinate seeds of life, your own, still unfulfilled,
Lacking only your consent
To burst to full fruit,
Whose harvest yield
Is your heart’s desire.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, 
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with all of you.

                                                                   2 Corinthians 13:13

The Center City 

Lutheran Church    of the Holy Communion

The Center City Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion been "In the City for Good" for the past 125 years. We are a diverse, gospel centered congregation and a hospitable place of worship and learning.

You are invited to join us for worship each Sunday at 11:00 a.m. We treasure our tradition of excellent music and the choir provides special music during festival times of the year.

Our Community is open to all people. We are a Reconciled in Christ Congregation and welcome all people regardless of sexual orientation.

Take advantage of the many opportunities for learning and community life during the week through bible study and discussion groups, small group ministry, music camp, Sunday school, adult forum, visits to interesting and historical places, or line dancing for all ages.

"We will praise god as we declare that Christ is our savior, proclaim the gospel, serve our neighbors in the community and the world, and love one another."

The Alethia Foundation thanks the Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion and its Pastor, the Rev Dr. David Farley for its gracious hospitality for this event. In particular we wish to thank Mr. Ron Coolbaugh, Administrator at Holy Communion, for his time, assistance and courtesy.

The Center City
Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion

Twenty First and Chestnut Streets
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103-4405
Phone 215-567-3668
Fax 215-569-1840
www.lutheranchurchphiladelphia.org
The Rev. Dr. David E. Farley, Pastor   

The Alethia Foundation thanks those who meet the day’s needs for
DEACONS, USHERS, HOSTS, and SECURITY.

Among them are :

Brian Anderson
Rich Beck
Ron Coolbaugh
Kathryn Goree
Nancy Gross
Meredith Harris
Jim Henderson
Lynn Jaeger
Bruce Robertson
Gertrude Streater
Nancy Williams

Special thanks are extended to Nancy Gross, Alethia Administrative Facilitator.

CLERGY       The Rev. Dr. Sandra Ellis-Killian

MUSICIANS

The Alethia Foundation thanks the artists who have brought their offerings of sacred music to the altar today.

Rebecca Carr, soprano

Barbara Jackson, soprano

Heather Miller, ‘cello

Alan Morrison, organ, piano

The Alethia Foundation thanks the Ninth District of the Philadelphia Police Department for their courtesy and watchfulness during the Prayer Sanctuary. 

 The                                                                        
 Alethia Foundation

is an ecumenical, scholarly organization, dedicated to a Christian synthesis for a new age. The Alethia Foundation draws from classical Christian theology in order to provide a Christian interpretation of the paradigm shift now taking place in human understanding. The Alethia Foundation seeks to make heard a voice of Christian enlightenment.

The Alethia Foundation is a non-profit organization incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is designated a tax exempt public charity under the United States Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501(c)3. It is not a private foundation.

Contributions are tax deductible.

93 Old York Road, Suite 1 - 481
Jenkintown, Pennsylvania 19046
info@alethia.org 

All scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  New Year’s Day Prayer Sanctuary Meditation Guide   by Sandra Ellis-Killian
© Copyright 2001 The Alethia Foundation