2 Jan 2017

Canada Prays: #prayersof #oblation

PrayerOfThePeople.org Canada PraysCANADA PRAYS: An initiative of Anglican Fellowship of Prayer and Society of St John the Evangelist to help us all enter more deeply into the richness of prayer. For more information, please visit anglicanprayer.org

This week: OBLATION
Q.What is prayer of oblation?
A. Oblation is an offering of ourselves, our lives and labours, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God.[1]
Brother Mark Brown, of SSJE, shares the cyclical and unending reality of oblation: “God gives us our lives, our selves.  In gratitude we offer our selves as an oblation to God.  In gratitude God returns our selves to us, transformed.”[2]
Our prayers of oblation offer to God the fruits of our labours. Just as we try to give wonderful gifts to our loved ones on earth, so too we want to give our very best to God. This giving of the best of ourselves speaks of a relationship with God, of knowing what is possible and striving to make it a reality.
In creating us, God knows our potential. In recognising and using our God-given gifts, we learn more about God and what is possible through God. In oblation, we pray acknowledgement that we have came from God, and discern new ways to offer our works back to God, with gratitude.
Canada Prays #prayersof #oblation: God of vision, I offer to you…
Some thoughts on oblation, from Michael and Veronica:
[1] “An Outline of the Faith commonly called the Catechism” in The Book of Common Prayer, According to the use of The Episcopal Church, 2007. p.857. Available at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/downloads/book_of_common_prayer.pdf
[2] http://ssje.org/ssje/2010/01/19/the-prayer-of-oblation-br-mark-brown/

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