As my good e-friend Fran says, “this is a wonderful video from James Martin and America Magazine. The whole prayer is beautiful, but the last minute and a half is truly amazing, beautiful and can be used by Catholics and other Christians alike. Amen!”
I’m sure, also, that Fr James would be perfectly happy to have people translate his prayer into their own frustrations with their own church – whatever the denomination. Church is the means – not the goal or the end. God is the end, the goal. We often get this confused.
This is soo wonderful, & came exactly when I needed to hear it!
It strikes me that “the Church” also refers to the body of believers – not only members of one or another denomination. So all those difficulties we have with our fellow Christians in our everyday lives – big conflicts, small annoyances, hurt feelings – can be soothed by getting grounded in God’s Spirit, which this prayer beautifully reminds us to do.
That may not immediately fix what’s frustrating me..but it will help to make me a channel of His peace. 🙂
Okay..*deep breaths* Back in the game I go!
Thanks, Christine. Yes, I think like you do. Denominations of the one church. Blessings.
Notice the title of the video is “Prayer for Frustrated CATHOLICS.” Yes, our Roman Catholic brothers and sister need our prayers. But most of this struck me as irrelevant to the Episcopal/Anglican church. Thanks be to God that we have mostly moved beyond the issues that must trouble our Roman Catholic friends.
Fair enough, Lisa. I noted that in my post. I did not see this as irrelevant in the manner you did. And individuals who have contacted me, who are neither RC nor Episcopalian/Anglican, have also found some/much of what is said not irrelevant, but very helpful. I continue to find living with(in) the church difficult, much in the manner described. Blessings.
I am having trouble wrapping my mind around Ms. Fox’s comment.
The issue with prayer for change is that as people who are recipients of God’s unconditional, complete and eternal love and grace we already know what has to be done and that is to move from a legalistic model of being church to a relational one. Jesus’ summary of the Commandments puts it so well but where the practical need for order in the functioning of the Church is a given, demands for submissive obedience to hierarchical structures frustratingly dis-empower all but the upper echelons. Where the goal is a legal ‘purity’ the means is always coercive and frequently violent.
John Marcon
Transcript on page 6 of this pdf:
http://tinyurl.com/9fn5pry
Thanks, Nigel. Blessings.