Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105). This all-new edition of a perennial CSS favorite is a valuable resource for busy pastors, worship planners, worship service planners, and worship resource planners. It’s an easy-to-use reference offering several prayers relating to the assigned scriptural passages for every Sunday and major observance in Cycle C of the Revised Common Lectionary. For each First, Second, and Gospel reading there’s a call to worship, a collect, a prayer of confession, and suggested hymns – plenty of inspiring material for the creation of fresh, meaningful worship services. Supplemental resources include numerous prayers for general use, worship material for Mother’s Day, and a brief service for hunting season that highlights the connection between responsible hunting and God’s creation. In addition, there are alternate verses for use with several familiar hymns plus hymns from the Brethren tradition. This complete collection offers a wide selection of practical aids for creating sincerely reverent, thematically unified worship experiences in which hymns, prayers, and scripture all work together to illuminate the powerful connection between God’s Word and the daily lives of the people in the pews.
These are not words to be admired. They are words to be prayed. This is all about talking to God. Just as importantly, it’s about listening to God talking back…. I hope that people use times of silence, both in worship and in life, to allow the opportunity for God to speak. There is, of course, no controlling God. We cannot pull on a chain and ensure a reply. That would be magic. But we can at least work on the assumption that prayer is a conversation – not a harangue, part medical report and part Santa wish list. We can also work on the assumption that this is the Lord of the universe we are speaking to, awe-inspiring and majestic, yet somehow marvelously secure as a God who encourages us to speak on an intimate basis.
(from the Introduction)
Frank Ramirez is an author and pastor in the Church of the Brethren who has written numerous books, articles, and short stories. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez has served congregations in Indiana and California, and is currently pastor at Everett Church of the Brethren in Everett, Pennsylvania. In addition to volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids for Cycles A and B, his other CSS titles include A Call To Worship, Partners In Healing, He Took A Towel, Gabriel’s Horn, and The Christmas Star.
