Motivation:
We don’t normally do singing in these reflective services. Partially because they’re small and singing can be hard, secondly because I’ve got a preference for other forms of worship generally, and thirdly because we don’t really have good singing leaders at our disposal within those who regularly attend.
So we decided to ensure that we weren’t isolating those who appreciated the value of singing in worship and have a service which used the music of Taize to allow us both to ’sing’ and ‘reflect’.
(As a side note, we discussed later how Taize services were only a few years ago quite common and well attended locally – Now many of them have died out. Not sure why, but it is a shame, and perhaps something worth reviving if the interest is there)
Resources:
A beautiful side-effect of planning what was a relatively simple service was stumbling upon some wonderful resources: The Selah Service, which also kindly puts their material online. Many thanks to them for that useful resource.
Environment:
While a fairly normal setup, we did take advantage of this form of service to make it darker than usual (since no reading was required) and took advantage of a recent piece of art which has arrived at the church’s gallery to provide a focal point.
Service:
Song: Nada te Turbe (while people arrive)
Opening prayer
Eternal God, we come to you with hungry hearts, waiting to be filled:
Waiting to be filled with a sense of your presence; Waiting to be filled
with the touch of your spirit; Waiting to be filled with new energy for
service;
We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and
we have done those things which we ought not to have done.
Gracious God, we confess what seems always with us: broken things
within us that seem never to mend, empty places within us that seem
always to ache, things like buds within us that seem never to flower.
O God of love and grace, help us to accept ourselves; lead us to do
those good and true things that are not compromised by anything
within us. As much as can be, mend us, fill us, make us bloom.
Have mercy upon us. Come to us, we pray. Be with us this day. Touch
us. Heal us. Empower us as your people, that we might worship you in
all we do, and act in the world for Jesus’ sake.
Everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this
day; grant that this day we fall into no sin, straying not from the way
of love and justice, and protect us with thy peace which has power
over all adversity.
Let us pray for those who weep, and for those who cause their
weeping
Hear our prayer, O God.
Reading/Introduction
Singing is one of the most essential elements of worship. Short songs, repeated again and again, give it a meditative character. Using just a few words they express a basic reality of faith, quickly grasped by the mind. As the words are sung over many times, this reality gradually penetrates the whole being. Meditative singing thus becomes a way of listening to God. It allows everyone to take part in a time of prayer together and to remain together in attentive waiting on God, without having to fix the length of time too exactly.
To open the gates of trust in God, nothing can replace the beauty of human voices united in song. This beauty can give us a glimpse of “heaven’s joy on earth,” as Eastern Christians put it. And an inner life begins to blossom within us.
These songs also sustain personal prayer. Through them, little by little, our being finds an inner unity in God. They can continue in the silence of our hearts when we are at work, speaking with others or resting. In this way prayer and daily life are united. They allow us to keep on praying even when we are unaware of it, in the silence of our hearts.
From Clouds & Glory: Prayers for the Church Year
(Morehouse Publishing)
Eternal God and Father,
we thirst for your love,
we long for your presence,
we yearn for your peace.
Come, Lord, restore us that we may live to your glory;
through him who gives us the water of life,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Song: O Lord Hear my Prayer
Song: Stay with Us
Song: Within our Darkest Night
Song: Wait for the Lord
Song: Stay With me
Instrumental music to allow time for private prayer.
Prayer
From Celtic Benediction: Morning & Night Prayer
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing)
I watch this morning
for the light that the darkness has not overcome.
I watch for the fire that was in the beginning
and that burns still in the brilliance of the rising sun.
I watch for the glow of life that gleams in the growing earth
and glistens in sea and sky.
I watch for your light, O God,
in the eyes of every living creature
and in the ever-living flame of my own soul.
If the grace of seeing were mine this day
I would glimpse you in all that lives.
Grant me the grace of seeing this day.
Grant me the grace of seeing.
Song: Bless the Lord
Song: Jesus Remember me
Song: My soul is at rest
Song: In the Lord
Closing Prayer
I lie down this night with God,
And God will lie down with me;
I lie down this night with Christ,
And Christ will lie down with me;
I lie down this night with the Spirit,
And the Spirit will lie down with me;
God and Christ and the Spirit
Be lying down with me.
Amen.
