January 24th, 2007 
There was no choir rehearsal for the past two weeks due to weather. Today ends up being, due to attendance, a quartet practice including Matt. There was 1 soprano and 2 basses with Matt singing tenor when needed.
We opened by rehearsing Praise the Lord Our God Forever. We started practicing pieces for Easter and the new pieces are by the same composer of the Christmas program music.
Sight reading the new music was harder than usual, although the songs sound like they will be great when we are confident and familiar with them.
Matt's closing prayer impressed me. He prayed that the words and music we sing in choir would fill our minds and hearts throughout the week.
There are more changes in my prayer life joining the email prayer list. Mary asked me about this since, in the past, I have not been disciplined regarding prayer (other than before meal prayers). This was a reason for volunteering for the chain. I want to be more comfortable with prayer.
I am reading Thomas Merton's New Man. In the book he wrote about the "right thinking" man, who is an unbelieving believer: that is to say the relgious man who lives, in practice, without a God. This was in a passage where Merton was talking about the myth of Prometheus in an exploration of Christian renewal in terms of the loneliness and despair that seems to afflict much of modern transcendence. The myth of Prometheus, whom he calls the mystic without faith, is an inspired choice of story. Prometheus steals fire from God because he thinks he must - because God did not give man fire. Merton outlines the problem of Prometheus in another book:
If Christ has died and risen from the dead and poured out upon us the fire of His Holy Spirit, why do we imagine that our desire for life is a Promethean desire, doomed to punishment?
. . . .Why do we reproach ourselves for desiring victory? Why do we pride ourselves on our defeats, and glory in despair? Because we think our life is important to ourselves alone, and do not know that our life is more important to the Living God than it is to our own selves.
Because we think our happiness is for ourselves alone, and do not realize that it is also His happiness. Because we think our sorrows are for ourselves alone, and do not believe that they are much more than that: they are His sorrows. There is nothing we can steal from Him at all, because before we can think of stealing it, it has already been given.
This is quoted in relationship to prayer for internal perspective. My focus in the past started with the outcome of prayer. Praying to God focused on outcome is uncomfortable, together with stories about the power of prayer changing outcomes. It is too easy to slip into the notion God helps towards a desired outcome because you prayed or had faith enough or, of more concern, doesn't help because prayers or faith fell short.
I take the Merton passage to mean God already provides everything needed in a particular situation. The power of prayer is concerned with questioning, exploration and understanding of what is being prayed about and finding a proper relationship with God.
I will ask soon about the mechanics of the prayer chain (people are moved on, will we be told or assume when people should be moved off). I assume the mechanics will be close to the Prayers of the People in the liturgy and I will default to that.
Again, my wife has triggered a more mindful attentiveness to the direction I am taking in this endeavour.
There was no choir rehearsal for the past two weeks due to weather. Today ends up being, due to attendance, a quartet practice including Matt. There was 1 soprano and 2 basses with Matt singing tenor when needed.
We opened by rehearsing Praise the Lord Our God Forever. We started practicing pieces for Easter and the new pieces are by the same composer of the Christmas program music.
Sight reading the new music was harder than usual, although the songs sound like they will be great when we are confident and familiar with them.
Matt's closing prayer impressed me. He prayed that the words and music we sing in choir would fill our minds and hearts throughout the week.
There are more changes in my prayer life joining the email prayer list. Mary asked me about this since, in the past, I have not been disciplined regarding prayer (other than before meal prayers). This was a reason for volunteering for the chain. I want to be more comfortable with prayer.
I am reading Thomas Merton's New Man. In the book he wrote about the "right thinking" man, who is an unbelieving believer: that is to say the relgious man who lives, in practice, without a God. This was in a passage where Merton was talking about the myth of Prometheus in an exploration of Christian renewal in terms of the loneliness and despair that seems to afflict much of modern transcendence. The myth of Prometheus, whom he calls the mystic without faith, is an inspired choice of story. Prometheus steals fire from God because he thinks he must - because God did not give man fire. Merton outlines the problem of Prometheus in another book:
If Christ has died and risen from the dead and poured out upon us the fire of His Holy Spirit, why do we imagine that our desire for life is a Promethean desire, doomed to punishment?
. . . .Why do we reproach ourselves for desiring victory? Why do we pride ourselves on our defeats, and glory in despair? Because we think our life is important to ourselves alone, and do not know that our life is more important to the Living God than it is to our own selves.
Because we think our happiness is for ourselves alone, and do not realize that it is also His happiness. Because we think our sorrows are for ourselves alone, and do not believe that they are much more than that: they are His sorrows. There is nothing we can steal from Him at all, because before we can think of stealing it, it has already been given.
This is quoted in relationship to prayer for internal perspective. My focus in the past started with the outcome of prayer. Praying to God focused on outcome is uncomfortable, together with stories about the power of prayer changing outcomes. It is too easy to slip into the notion God helps towards a desired outcome because you prayed or had faith enough or, of more concern, doesn't help because prayers or faith fell short.
I take the Merton passage to mean God already provides everything needed in a particular situation. The power of prayer is concerned with questioning, exploration and understanding of what is being prayed about and finding a proper relationship with God.
I will ask soon about the mechanics of the prayer chain (people are moved on, will we be told or assume when people should be moved off). I assume the mechanics will be close to the Prayers of the People in the liturgy and I will default to that.
Again, my wife has triggered a more mindful attentiveness to the direction I am taking in this endeavour.
posted by Gary at
9:09 PM
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