Common Prayer Pocket Edition: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals - By: Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove Everyone I talk to lately is dealing with a lot.  First, there are the things we are all dealing with – pandemic, economic woes, education, etc.  Then there are our personal concerns.  Me?  I’ve got a sick cat, an elderly father, and replacing the toilet seal has turned into tearing up the floor, plumbing work on the sink drain, and more.

But really, I’m sick of thinking about this rot all the time.  I wake up worried about the cat.  I try to work worried about getting paid.  As I wait to use our only functioning bathroom, I wonder what repair bill is going to crop up next.  Every time my allergy ridden child or I cough, I worry about the virus. And I’m tired of it.  I’m tired of the issues themselves but I’m also tired of them being my focus.

Daily Bible reading has helped.  But I also want to bolster my prayer life.  You’d think that during a pandemic prayer would be a focus.

Yet when I try to pray, I’m lost.  I’m so overwhelmed that I just don’t know what to say.

What can I say that God hasn’t already heard?  What can I say that is truly meaningful?  I have questions but no answers, no words.

The good news is that there are words ready to be delivered to my phone.  Earlier this week, I found a prayer app, Common Prayer: A Liturgey for Ordinary Radicals.  I have to admit that I was jazzed to find this app because this is my single favorite book on prayer.  The idea of the book is to help the diverse church pray together across denominations.

Download the app and you can have a reminder deliverd for morning, midday and evening prayer.  They have set times when these reminders are delivered but you can also customize the times.  There are prayers.  You can click through to music.  They discuss prayers and workship traditions.  Today they delivered the prayer of St. Francis which really made my day.

It is so hard today not to focus on all that is negative.  After all, our phones connect us to a constant stream of messages and warnings.  Why not use your phone to connect to God?

I can’t say that it is solving all my problems.  The drain pipe is still crumbling away.  But my attitude about that pipe and everything else is a whole lot better.  Won’t you join me in prayer?

–SueBE