2024 08 22

"Remember the prisoners as if chained with them--those who are mistreated--since you yourselves are in the body also." Hebrews 13:3

For Prisoners. (BCP modified)
O GOD, who spares when we deserve punishment, and in your wrath remembers mercy; we humbly beseech you, of your goodness, to comfort and succour all prisoners [especially those who are condemned to die]. Give them a right understanding of themselves, and of your promises; that, trusting wholly in your mercy, they may not place their confidence anywhere but in you. Relieve the distressed, protect the innocent, awaken the guilty; and forasmuch as you alone bring light out of darkness, and good out of evil, grant to these your servants, that by the power of your Holy Spirit they may be set free from the chains of sin and death, and may be brought to newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the peace of Jerusalem
A formative experience in prayer for me began I think around 1973 while Jean and I were missionary teachers sent by the Episcopal Church to Liberia. One morning I was reading the Bible and in Psalm 122 I encountered the words, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." Then there followed a prayer to pray. It stopped me in my tracks and I wondered how many other places in the Bible were we told to pray for something and then given a prayer to pray. I discovered that there are very few such places. I decided that those few must be fairly important then if that is all there were. I struggled with a couple different translations and finally came up with the following prayer:

"Father, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
May they prosper that love you.
Peace be inside your city walls and prosperity within your palaces.
And for the sake of my brethren and companions, I will say,
'Peace be with you.'
Because of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek to do you good."

I stuck the prayer up by the mirror I used for shaving and it became a part of my everyday routine. I didn't think much about it, I just did it. At a certain point I woke up to the implications of the phrase, "for the sake of my brethren". My younger brother had been a fugitive from Federal justice at that time for about five or six years. He had been in the Weathermen in the 60's and had tried to fire-bomb an Air Force ROTC building at the University of Washington in Seattle. After he was caught and arrested and let out on bail to await trial he jumped bail. Ultimately, he remained at large for seventeen years before he was finally caught, but that's another story. Anyway, I realized that in praying for the peace of Jerusalem, I could also pray for my brother, and the prayer became:

"Father, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
May they prosper that love you.
Peace be inside your city walls and prosperity within your palaces.
And for the sake of my brothers and companions, I will say,
'Peace be with you.'
Because of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek to do you good."

In this slightly modified form it continued to be a part of my daily prayers. As I said, I didn't think much about it, I just prayed it.

A Word Received: Look to me for unexpected help in times of trouble.

Albany Intercessor