Vineyard Canada National Fast 2023 Jan 9 & 10

National Focus ‘23: Engaging with the Mission of Jesus
 

It is hard to believe that another year has flown by and it is time to engage in our annual time of fasting and prayer. Over the next 10 days, starting January on 9th, we want to carve out space and time to lean into a posture of listening and responding to the Spirit of Christ as we worship, wait, listen and pray together. 

In order to help us be prepared and ready to engage both in our personal and communal spaces we will be providing “Fast Journey Updates” every couple of days. They will include the following elements: an orientation to the theme and a common liturgy that we will be using in our Zoom Prayer Room; an anchoring focus and scripture reading; and a common prayer. These gatherings will begin promptly at 7AM PST and end at 7:45AM PST

May Jesus meet us as we set aside this time! 

The Journey Begins: Day One and Two

1_ The Invitation

Consecration: Preparation and Surrender

Posturing Liturgy:

Leader: Prepare us O Lord to be set apart in sacred devotion to you.

Response: Make ready our hearts for consecration to your Holy Name.

Leader: Following the example of our Lord, we walk into the river,

Response: Freely submerging, and freely surrendering, 

Leader: That we may rise up immersed in your mercy and embraced by our Father.

Response: Show us the pathway. Enable us to receive your love.

All: Prepare us O Lord to be set apart in sacred devotion to you.
 

2_ Anchoring Reflection / And so we begin. At the beginning. 

Entering the mission of Jesus with Him being consecrated at the Temple by his parents. Most of the religious folk were oblivious to the significance of what was happening. Yet here we see Simeon, moved by the Spirit, Anna with a lifestyle of prayer and fasting, both with their eyes open to recognize the infant Messiah. 

In that same spirit, at the beginning of this new year and communal fast, we surrender, we pray, we look.

Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years.  Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. 

Luke 1:36-38

Ponder; Wait; Listen
 

What might be some disappointments that Anna had to work through to come to this place of devotion and surrender?

What might be some disappointments that we need to surrender to God as we begin these 10 days of prayer together?

 

“Have I the courage to leave the familiar and journey into the unknown? King of the mysteries, will You set watch over me? Christ of the mysteries, can I trust you on the sea?” 

Brendan 6th 

3_ Common Prayer

Calm me, O Lord, as You stilled the storm.
Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm.
Let all the tumult within me cease.
Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace.

Father, bless the work that is done,
and the work that is to be.

Father, bless the servant that I am,
and the servant that I will be.

*Taken from The Felgild Compline from Northumbria Community’s Complines published by Collins
Note: Throughout the fast we want to encourage you to send into the VC team what you are hearing/sensing that the Spirit may be speaking to us as a family. Please send your contributions to listeningteam@vineyard.ca

Zoom Link: https://vineyard.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=72a6ed86332977e388490f778&id=4c3ce3456f&e=5f2c3440a5