Nativity's prayer chain has 18 members, but others are welcome to join any time, according to Mary Gordon. "We don't have any meetings, but we do receive updates at the regular weekly women's Bible study sessions," she said. "We do request updates after we have put someone on the prayer chain."

The prayer chain is a dedicated group, convinced of the healing power of prayer. "Our prayer chain serves two other purposes," Father Jim said. "It instills the prayer habit and it helps our communication system, our grape vine."

Our Mission Family Prayer List

Our prayer chain is not to be confused with the mission family prayer list that appears every week in our bulletin and which is included in the prayers of the people during both services. The normal procedure is that people submit a request by writing a person's name on a card and turning it into our secretary, Elly Freyer. But sometimes, people call. Usually names stay in the bulletin for four weeks, unless someone requests that a name be removed. Or a person may ask that a name be included for the month of June or some other special request such as a longer time on the list.

However, we ask that anyone who places a name on the prayer list give us an update the next month. There's no real time limit as to how long a person stays on the list, but we are interested in a person's progress.

We also request that everyone pray at home during the week for those listed in the bulletin. Even when people do not know they are being prayed for, there seems to be a beneficial response.

Elly also reminds that there is an opportunity to recognize someone special by dedicating flowers or a candle each week. 

(From Feb 2000 Nativity newsletter)

For these and other gifts too many to mention, we praise you and thank you, today, tomorrow and forever. Amen

Recommended Reading:

The Divine Hours
by Phyllis Tickle

A Guide to Daily Fixed-Hour Prayer. This series of books draws on the Book of Common Prayer and the Church Fathers, as well as the New Jerusalem Bible, to provide daily readings and prayers. Fans of the Divine Hours books applaud Tickle's uncomplicated format, her use of a modern calendar rather than a liturgical one, and the single ribbon in the binding, which is, amazingly, all that readers need to track the daily offices. Fixed-hour prayers (also called "keeping the hours" or "saying the offices") are listed for each calendar day--morning, midday, and evening.  Tickle's book of hours modernizes the ancient practice of fixed-hour prayer, as originally practiced by the Jews ("Seven times a day do I praise you" [Psalm 119:164]) and adapted by early Christians. The book's introduction provides a short history of this tradition of prayer, whose centrality in Christian worship was cemented in the sixth century, when St. Benedict fashioned the rule of his community according to the schedule of fixed-hour prayer. The introduction also encourages readers to experiment with sung and chanted prayer (the encouragement includes the tantalizing observation by Saint Augustine that "Whoever sings, prays twice"). The discipline described by The Divine Hours is demanding, but the rewards, as Tickle describes them, are great. Christians who practice fixed-hour prayer "find themselves filled with a conscious awareness that they are handing their worship, at its final 'Amen,' on to other Christians in the next time zone. Like relay runners passing a lighted torch, those who do the work of fixed-hour prayer create thereby a continuous cascade of praise before the throne of God."

The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime
Prayers for October through January.
Hardcover: 651 pgs, list price $27.50 - check Amazon's discount price

The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime
Hardcover: 600 pgs, list price $27.50 - check Amazon's discount price