March 14, 2024

Introduction 

Welcome to Mulberry Meditations! I’m so glad you’ve decided to join today in prayer. When we pray, we connect our heart to God’s heart, giving of our needs and praises while also receiving the grace, love, and provision of our great God. My name is Ted Goshorn, senior pastor of Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, and I’ll be guiding us through this time of prayer. 

Our prayers follow a contemplative liturgy, or pattern, in the long tradition of Christians who have utilized scripture readings, repeated refrains, and silence to commune through prayer. Together, we will hear scriptures from the daily lectionary, familiar hymn lyrics and music, and engage gradually in a time of silence, always preceded by scripture, that we may hear from God through God’s word. 

Now, I invite you to get comfortable, praying in whatever position feels natural, as we go through this time of prayer.

On this fifth Thursday of Lent, March 14, 2024, we bring ourselves expectantly before our Lord in prayer, with praise and thanksgiving, opening ourselves to give and receive, from our heart to God’s heart. 

And so we pray:

God, come to my assistance. 

O Lord, make haste to help me. (Ps. 70:1)

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen. (Gloria Patri)

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. (Ps. 42:6)

6 My soul is cast down within me;

    therefore I remember you

from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,

    from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep

    at the thunder of your torrents;

all your waves and your billows

    have gone over me.

8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,

    and at night his song is with me,

    a prayer to the God of my life.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

    and why are you disquieted within me?

11 Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,

    my help and my God. (Ps. 42:6-8, 11)

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. (Ps. 42:6)

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee; thou changes not, thy compassions, they fail not; as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me! [UMH 64]

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. (Ps. 42:6)

Hear us now, O God, as we offer our prayers for:

• Our families and all who call us friend
• Our church and all who claim your name 
• Our community, be it neighborhood, town, or city 
• Our nation and world, especially remembering those caught up in conflicts
• My needs and praises this day

O Lord, hear my prayer. 

A reading from 1 Corinthians, as we prepare ourselves to hear from God through keeping silence:

“24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25 Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 26 So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air, 27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. (1 Cor. 9:24-27)

Silence 

And now we pray as Jesus taught us to pray by saying: 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever; Amen.

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. (Ps. 42:6)

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him, who lives and reigns forever with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever; Amen.

And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you: may the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: may the LORD turn his face toward you, and give you peace. 

Amen.

Subscribe by signing up for daily emails to pray each day. To learn more about Mulberry Street UMC and to give to support our work, visit mulberrymethodist.org. New prayers post daily, both as audio podcasts and blog posts, so I hope you will return often. Visit tedgoshorn.org to see written prayers and to learn more. Prayer transforms our hearts, as we seek to be evermore like Jesus.