How do you sit down and write a prayer? For many of us, prayer can feel like a daunting task — something best left to clergy, theologians, or ancient saints. But at Christ & St. Luke’s, we believe that prayer is an invitation to anyone seeking to connect with the God of unconditional love.
This beautiful realization is at the heart of our Prayer Guild, a group founded by parishioner Barb Kersey. This March, Barb is retiring after a remarkable career as a family therapist, but her calling to hold space for others continues.
The Prayer Guild was born after poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama visited our church in 2024 as the inaugural speaker for the Jim Sell Community Conversation Series. Barb felt a clear, persistent message from God that writing prayers was a ministry others could share in. During his visit, Ó Tuama offered a profoundly simple, five-step process for crafting a collect (a traditional form of prayer):
- Name the one you’re praying to.
- Unfold the name of the one you’re praying to.
- Name one desire.
- Unfold the desire you’ve named.
- Finish with a flourish.
(Note: While this framework is a great starting point, the Prayer Guild welcomes any form of prayerful writing!)
If you join a Prayer Guild meeting, you will find a quiet, welcoming space that embodies our belief that everyone belongs. Meetings begin with a brief guided meditation. Participants are invited to plant their feet on the floor, follow the natural rhythm of their breath, and visualize a “mountaintop” experience — a moment where they felt deeply connected to the divine.
From that grounded place of stillness, the group explores a prompt. Recently, participants reflected on sermons regarding the Transfiguration, pondering how to take the shining light of a mountaintop spiritual experience back down into the valley of our everyday lives.
The group takes five minutes to write their thoughts down as a conversation with God. Then, they go around the circle and read their prayers aloud. The rule is simple: feedback is always welcome, as long as it’s positive!
The results can be breathtaking. In a recent meeting, one participant wrote a moving piece about the beauty and diversity of the communion line. Another gave thanks for the sensory rituals of the church, from the smell of incense to the pouring of holy water in the garden.
The Prayer Guild does not just look inward; they turn their prayers outward toward the most vulnerable in our city. Recently, the guild partnered with the Child Advocacy Center at CHKD, dedicating an evening to praying for children who have suffered exploitation.
With heavy but hopeful hearts, members wrote prayers asking God to comfort frightened children, to grant exhausted care workers the ability to draw from the endless well of God’s love, and to give abused young women the “wings to flee” and find safety. The group also recently collaboratively wrote the Prayers of the People that will be read aloud during our Sunday Lenten services.
You do not need to be a poet, a theologian, or an experienced writer to join the Prayer Guild. You only need a willingness to sit in stillness, listen for God’s voice, and share in a community of grace.
If you are looking for a new spiritual practice, please join for the next meeting of the Prayer Guild at 6:45 p.m. on April 23. Contact Barb Kersey for more information.
