A few months into my first call I got one of those dreaded anonymous notes. It declared that we should be praying for our congregation every week. It ended, “Dead bishops don’t need our prayers.” The cause of this complaint was my practice of including a petition in the intercessions that began, “remembering the example of . . .” There followed the names of any persons who were being commemorated that week and sometimes that included “dead bishops” like St. Augustine. Of course I also included kings like St. Olaf or hymn writers like Catherine Winkworth or even members of the congregation who had recently died. We never prayed for them: we remembered them before God asking to be inspired by their example. 

Remembering is an important part of prayer. In the Great Thanksgiving at Communion we remember: “in the night in which he was betrayed our Lord Jesus took bread . . .” Whenever we thank God we, remember what God has done for us. When we praise God, we remember God’s attributes. When we intercede for others, we remember their needs. When we confess, we remember our faults and God’s promise of forgiveness. And we can remember before God those who have gone before us in the faith so that we can follow their example. 

It can helpful to prepare for prayer by asking yourself “who and what should I remember in my prayer?”  Remembering can even form one of the things you pray for such as, “Help me to remember today the blessings you’ve given me.” 

Read Philemon 2-6, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

 Wayne 

Today’s Reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philemon+2-6&version=NRSV