Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Write a Prayer for Advent


Our Wednesday evening Vespers service will continue through Advent with some modifications to the service music. For the Hymn of Light we’ll sing a hymn Christians have been singing since the ninth century – “Creator of the Stars of Night.” You can find it in Evangelical Lutheran Worship at hymn no. 245. We’ll switch to an Advent Psalm based on the tune we know as “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Finally, the Magnificat (Mary’s Song) will be sung to Deo Gracias which is often sung to the text “Oh Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High.”

We are asking for your help in composing the prayer section of the service. You are invited to write prayers for the assembly in this time of hope and waiting. We are looking for fully written prayers rather than a list of prayer requests. You might wish to use the prayers from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (pages 72 – 83) as a guide. Before the service begins we will announce the names of those who have written prayers. If you wish for your prayer to remain anonymous, just let us know.

For more help on writing prayers, I found this excellent article on the internet:
http://www.examiner.com/protestant-in-richmond/liturgical-writing-101-the-collect-prayer-form.

You may submit your prayers to Tony Cruz at vespers@comcast.net. Hard copies will also be accepted!

2 comments:

Suzanne Marie DeWitt said...

What a wonderful practice; to include actual prayers of the people. I'm sure you were all blessed by the results.

Tony Cruz said...

Sadly, we didn't have very many responses to our request. I hope that it made people think a little more intentionally about their prayer life in Advent anyway.