Center for Prayer & Spirituality (CPS)
The Center's mission is to encourage and support an interest in Christian spirituality and integrate mind, body, and spirit by offering contemplative practices, classes, lectures, workshops and spiritual direction.
We hope to foster connection, understanding and compassion for self, others and the mystery that beautifully and expansively holds us all.
(Note: Due to coronavirus, all gatherings are being held online.)
The traditional Quiet Garden Morning format is suspended during the pandemic. Instead, the Center will post periodic offerings here, for use at home. It is hoped that they will invite a pause in the day and time for reflection and prayer.
Grist for the Mill
The Cathedral Formation and Spirituality Council offers this devotional resource as the faithful engage in the 2020 general election campaign. Our one nation under God is struggling. People are fee...
31 Days of Prayer
Prayers for Reconciliation
Moving the Prayer Flags to Paper
This summer and early fall, we have made and lifted prayer flags in Cathedral Park,
watching them move in the breeze while we explored both the discomfort and the promise embedded in these times. The church calendar describes the span between Pentecost and Advent as “ordinary times”, but 2020 feels decidedly not ordinary.
Why don't we bring the spirit of the prayer flags indoors and continue working with it, this time committing our prayers to paper.
Prayers are filled with our hopes, fears, felt needs and thanksgivings. ..a very wide range of emotions. Our history is rich with examples, beginning very early.
Think of the Psalms!
“Give ear to my words, Yahweh,
spare a thought for my sighing,
Listen to my cry for help,
my King and my God!” ~Psalm 5
“Adoration I offer, Yahweh, with my whole heart,
I recount all your wonders,
I rejoice and delight in you,
I sing to your name, Most High.” ~Psalm 25
“God of vengeance, Yahweh,
God of vengeance shine forth!
Arise, judge of the world,
give back the proud what they deserve!” ~Psalm 94
“Alleluia! Praise Yahweh from the heavens,
praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his host!” ~Psalm 148
“I cry to God in my distress;
I cry to God and he hears me.” ~Psalm 77, The New Jerusalem Bible
Also, remember the contemporary prayers that appeal to you.
What is it about them that stirs you? Language, rhythm, images, color?
Consider composing a new prayer of your own, in the context of your situation,
your tribe or the larger community.
What would you want the prayer to include? What would the prayer look like? How would it feel?
From Saint Therese of Lisieux
May today there be peace within you.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received,
and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing that you are a child of God,
Let this presence settle into your bones,
and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
Amen
Coventry Litany of Reconciliation
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…..
The hatred which divides nation from nation, race from race, class from class,
Father, forgive.
The covetous desires of peoples and nations to possess what is not their own,
Father, forgive.
The greed which exploits the work of human hands and lays waste the earth,
Father, forgive.
Our envy of the welfare and happiness of others,
Father, forgive.
Our indifference to the plight of the imprisoned, the homeless, the refugee,
Father, forgive.
The lust which dishonors the bodies of men, women and children,
Father, forgive.
The pride which leads us to trust in ourselves and not in God,
Father, forgive.
…..
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
(Community of the Cross of Nails and Coventry Cathedral, Coventry UK)
Where there is separation there is pain.
And where there is pain there is story.
And where there is story there is understanding
and misunderstanding
listening and not listening.
May we — separated peoples, estranged strangers,
unfriended families, divided communities —
turn toward each other,
and turn toward our stories,
with understanding and listening,
with argument and acceptance,
with challenge, change and consolation.
Because if God is to be found,
God will be found in the space between.
Amen.
~Pádraig Ó Tuama
Weekly E Words
These e-mailed observations by religious leaders, philosophers, authors and poets are selected to inspire,invite reflection, and encourage prayer. Sign up for the weekly email here, and choose CPS Events and Weekly e-Word.
Tuesday Yoga
Now led online: Weekday Live
Friday Contemplative Eucharist
Conducted by cathedral clergy and lay leaders, this service combines contemplation and holy communion in a warm, welcoming worship service. Please wear a mask and observe social distancing.
Cummings Chapel, 12:10 pm.
Additional Resources
Cathedral Bookstore and Gift Shop, 221 E. Church Street...An excellent resource for books on prayer and reflection, inspirational material, Prayer Books and Bibles. Books can be ordered and mailed/delivered directly to you during the pandemic. The Bookstore also hosts “First Monday Book Group”. Get the bi-weekly bookstore newsletter "The Herald" by signing up here, and choose Cathedral Bookstore.
Contact Bookstore Manager Kathryn Bissette at (904) 632-9104, extension 152, or email [email protected] to learn more.
Pause, News and Views from the Quiet Garden Movement www.quietgarden.org
Our Guide to Silence and Stillness
Contemplative Outreach
www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Pilgrims' Journeys with Owene Philips Weber Courtney
The Center for Prayer and Spirituality is led by the Rev. Dr. Linda Privitera and Susan Bancks with the invaluable support, energy and imagination of Owene Courtney, Joe O'Shields, Liesl Gavronsky-Howsare and Megan Cochran.
