CANADA 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: INTERCESSION
Q. What is intercession?
A. Intercession brings before God the needs of others[1]
Brother Geoffrey Tristram, of SSJE, says that intercession is “a profoundly loving and closely holding up of others before God. It is becoming close ourselves to the heart of God in our prayers of loving adoration, and then bringing those we love and long to be healed with us.”[2]
Intercession is relational, coming from the greek word entunchanein which means ‘to be with someone on behalf of another.” It is not meant to be a simple read-through of random names with expected outcome, but a way of sharing our care with God and with that person, in community.
Many parish bulletins will include a list of the sick, and invite folks to pray for these people throughout the week. This is done as an opportunity to hold them up before God; whether they are known to us or not is inconsequential; they are known and loved by someone who is known and loved by us.
That connection is enough. It is enough to create the relationship in which we ask for God’s presence and spiritual well-being to be felt by those who are sick in body or mind or spirit. We pray for others, knowing that we too will be prayed for.
Canada Prays #prayersof #intercession: God of compassion, I pray for…
Some thoughts on intercession, from Renée:
[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/2009/10/20/intercession-br-geoffrey-tristram/
