Hi friends
I feel like keeping things simple in our prayer room this week. I’m running late again in getting this out to you. When life is busy and complicated, it’s refreshing to turn to the simple activities that help regulate daily life. The act of prepping vegetables is one that is grounding; peeling, washing, chopping, grating are all actions that have a simple repetition.
There’s also something wonderful about fresh food. In my head I like to garden. In practice it’s not something I ever manage to achieve much sustained success. This doesn’t stop me from appreciating produce. I walk the aisles of our local fruit and vegetable shop and love the visual aspect of piles of produce. I love the variety, the colours, the textures, the smells. I appreciate the hardwork that has gone into preparing soils, planting and tending to crops, harvesting and getting them to the people. A fruit and vegetable shop seems to me to showcase God’s creation at work.
God said, “I command the earth to produce all kinds of plants, including fruit trees and grain.” And that's what happened. The earth produced all kinds of vegetation. God looked at what he had done, and it was good. Evening came, then morning—that was the third day.
Genesis 1:11-13 (CEV)
Today’s prayers are about potatoes and peas. They’re both fresh vegetable prayers but can be adapted to what vegetables we have available in our gardens, pantries, fridges and freezers.
I have a fondness for potatoes. I’ve always liked them, but in recent years since my body has been giving me problems, they’ve shifted in importance to me from merely a taste preference to being an essential food. When medication supply was a problem for me in the early covid years and I went for several months without the meds that help me maintain an ‘ordinary’ daily routine,I lived on a diet predominantly made up of potatoes. Potatoes therefore to me are the ultimate gift from God. I have prayed many prayers while preparing and eating potatoes.
Living out our prayer life in the routines and rhythms of our ordinary daily lives is what our Virtual Prayer Room tries to inspire. Barbara Taylor Brown writes of the prayers that come through participating in ordinary tasks like hanging her washing on the clothesline…
“I imagine my prayers spinning away over the tops of the trees. This is good work this prayer. This is good prayer this work. So is digging in the garden, cleaning the chicken pens, washing the potatoes, doing the dishes.”
From An Altar in the World by Barbara Taylor Brown
I wonder what tasks and activities will be part of your daily routines this week and how these can be turned to prayer. I invite you to take notice of the possibilities for prayer as you go about daily life.
May God be with you in your work and in your prayer
On the journey
Caroline
Shelling Peas Prayer
Sense of Taste – Adoration & Praise Prayer (AP.TA.6)
Pop open a fresh pea pod to reveal the peas inside. As you eat each pea, say a one sentence prayer of praise to God. “God you are…”
Getting ready checklist
Fresh peas in pods
Further suggestions and adaptations on using this prayer
Prayer Station
This is a simple prayer which need not take up a lot of space. Use this prayer as part of a dinner prep prayer at a camp, retreat or for a dinner. Set up a basket with peas ready to be shelled and two separate buckets or bowls for the shells and for the peas.
Individual
If you have a vegetable garden why not grow some peas and pray this prayer. There’s nothing like picking your own vegetables and having a prayer time in your garden. Alternatively, buy a bag from your local green grocer and pray this prayer as you prepare a meal or have a ‘pea snack’.
Small Group
Pass around pea pods to everyone in your group. Sit together and break open your pods and pray your prayer as you munch on your peas.
Large Group
If you have keen gardeners in your group you may be able to get them to grow some peas for using this prayer on a later date. The planting of the seeds, nurturing of the plants could all form part of the praying process. Invite the gardeners to bring their peas as an offering to Jesus. Pray from the front of your group giving thanks for the process of growing seeds and praising our creative God who provides sustainable nourishment for us. Invite your gardeners to distribute the peas and ask the group to pray sitting right where they are offering their own prayers of praise and adoration for God who does new things in their lives every day.
Visual Images - Static, Projected, Live Props
· Stages of peas growing in garden from seed
· Pea pods being opened
· Other sustainable foods
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