“Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father, who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’—Matthew 6:9-13 (NASB)
We often find ourselves frustrated when national leaders and pundits offer “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of tragedies like mass shootings and natural disasters. As if thinking the right thoughts and asking God for the right things will somehow miraculously take away the pain, grief, and hardship of those affected by such events.
But what if our prayers could become something more? What if the work of our hands and feet to alleviate suffering and bring about justice could, in some very real way, become our prayers?
This week at New Wineskins, we’ll take a look at the section of the Sermon on the Mount known as the Lord’s prayer and see how its context opens us to the possibility that prayer is more than just pleading for divine favors.
Our discussion video this week features Fr. Richard Rohr talking about the concept of contemplative prayer and how it moves us out of dualistic thinking and into a way of seeing our actions themselves as the prayers we offer not just to the Divine, but to the world…and maybe even reality itself.
We hope you’ll join us this Sunday, Feb. 23, in the New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for a conversation about how our contemplative thoughts and prayers move us from distanced passivity into unifying collective action.
6:00pm ET: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm ET: Presentation & conversation begin
Check out this week’s discussion video
Click here to view this week’s discussion video on YouTube
Drawing from the inspiration of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, we’re starting 2025 with a dive into the Sermon on the Mount and its implications for today’s world. You may wish to subscribe to the CAC’s Daily Meditation email as a daily guide for our journey during this series.
Please help our coalfield neighbors
On February 15, 2025, destructive flooding struck many of the coalfield counties of West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and western Virginia. If you’d like to help financially, please give to any of the entities listed in the graphic above, or donate through West Virginia United Methodist Disaster Response at this link: https://wvumc.brtapp.com/page/donate/disaster-response-ministries (image courtesy From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice)
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Feature image: Volunteers delivering water to McDowell County, WV (Photo by Brad Davis)
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