Bogosity

I’ve managed to get a semblance of rhythm together for a fairly minimalist office of prayer. I’m using the SSF office book still but pretty much just reading the opening and ending prayers as well as the readings (using the cycle in the SSF book rather than the lectionary because I don’t want to be juggling three books). In the mornings I’m just saying the opening prayers for the morning office: The night has passed and the day lies open before us…

It’s funny that I came back to this just this week because the readings are about prayer from Matthew 6.5-15 . In this passage, Jesus emphasises keeping it simple and gives an example prayer which many will recognise because we say it as part of every liturgy that I know of – the Lords prayer.

I was discussing with Steph how Jesus emphasises the importance of forgiveness as part of this prayer and we talked about how forgiving someone is much more complex than saying a prayer. (I facetiously argued that an outburst she had had with a colleague was an act of peace because she had entered into dialog with that person). But seriously, I think that being willing to forgive is important but making peace (or at least attempting it) through dialog should be the end result of a prayer of forgiveness.

So forgiveness is about loving someone enough to want to try and make peace with them.