Dear Friends,
Here at St. Paul’s, we are introducing a new system for
enabling people to make suggestions of who to include in
the prayers during services. A list will be maintained on a
black clipboard. This will be kept on the wall next to the
Lectern used for intercessions.
Anyone is able to add the name of someone to be included
on either the list of the sick, or those who have died. The
person leading the intercessions will include those names in
the intercessions on the following Sundays.
The list of names will be started again each month, so names
will have to be added anew each month, if people wish to
continue praying for them.
This is a good time, therefore to try and answer a few
questions about what ”intercession” is.
Whatdoes“Intercession”mean? Literally, intercession
means “coming between” or “coming among” two other
parties. In our intercessory prayer we are (figuratively)
placing ourselves “between” or “alongside” God and a needy
person, situation, or part of the world. And asking God to do
something about it.
It follows that the interceder must be in solidarity with God,
and also with the people prayed for.
Is it all about words, then? Not at all. For the interceder to
be in solidarity with God, intercession must first and foremost
be a way of life or an act in which the intercessor shares in
Christ’s life of healing, reconciliation and redemption.
That sounds way too difficult. Not really. All who have
been baptised, have been baptised into Jesus’ life and death.
For those who believe, God lives in them, and they in God.
Furthermore, we know that the Holy Spirit within us
intercedes with ”sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26)
Intercession naturally flows out of our life as Christians, and
the Trinitarian life that we share with God.
You mentioned two parties… Yes, it’s not just about being
close t oGod but also close to those for whom we are praying.
On one level it’s a simple matter to put a name on a list. On
another, intercession is an act of solidarity with those for
whom we pray—an act of solidarity that involves
commitment and empathy and which affects who we are in a
deep and profound way.
William Blake expresses this powerfully in his poem “On
Another’sSorrow”,which can be found further down the page.
What about praying to the saints, or the Virgin Mary?
What about praying for those who have died? Why do we
need to pray, anyway? If God knows all things in
advance, how can we expect to change God’s mind?
These are serious questions, and some of those have been
asked for Centuries. But we’ll have to tackle them another
day.
Yours in Christ,
Nick
‘On another’s sorrow’
by William Blake
Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?
Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrow's share?
Can a father see his child
Weep, nor be with sorrow filled?
Can a mother sit and hear
An infant groan, an infant fear?
No, no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!
And can He who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small bird's grief and care,
Hear the woes that infants bear --
And not sit beside the nest,
Pouring pity in their breast,
And not sit the cradle near,
Weeping tear on infant's tear?
And not sit both night and day,
Wiping all our tears away?
Oh no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!
He doth give his joy to all:
He becomes an infant small,
He becomes a man of woe,
He doth feel the sorrow too.
Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy Maker is not by:
Think not thou canst weep a tear,
And thy Maker is not near.
Oh He gives to us his joy,
That our grief He may destroy:
Till our grief is fled an gone
He doth sit by us and moan.
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