Hiraeth Community Prayers Hiraeth Community
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- 宗教/スピリチュアル
Short prayers inspired by scriptures - from Hiraeth Community (helping those who long for home to find their way and finish strong)
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Why "Hiraeth Community"?
Why “Hiraeth Community”?
A couple of people have asked me why the name ‘Hiraeth Community.’ To answer that, let me take you back … back to the dark old days we used to call the global covid pandemic.
Because, it seemed to me, in the midst of all the madness and uncertainty, that people were searching. Genuinely searching while experiencing all sorts of new struggles. Whether it was people I encountered online or ‘facemask to facemask’ People were longing for something more than, facetime, furlough and pharmaceuticals.
I was also well aware already of this word, this concept we have in Wales of “Hiraeth” - I knew that it fitted pretty well with that longing, nagging, yearning that I sensed in others and experienced myself. On my Instagram a definition of Hiraeth popped up on my timeline. This is what it said:
"a deep sense of longing for home - perhaps a home we've never visited - a yearning for place or person that goes beyond this existence."
And I was like, “Yep, that’s it - that’s what we’re feeling.” Those who believe AND those who don’t yet believe.
So out of that, I thought “Hiraeth Community.”
A way of sharing the hope we have because of what Jesus did for us.
Sometimes Christianity can be presented as a cure for all our common problems - but I was learning that it’s important to acknowledge that we live in this awkward space, where we know there is something more, there is something better. We’re certain of it because of what Jesus has done and promised and yet we still pray “Your Kingdom Come.”
No one was satisfied with the way things were in 2020 - no one is ever truly satisfied with the world, or themselves. Something deep within us knows there’s more than all this. And for believers, we know who the king is, we know what he’s like, and that just intensifies the desperate hunger that we have for the fullness of his reign to be our daily reality.
So the tagline of this small digital endeavour became:
“helping those who long for home to find their way and finish strong.”
It’s funny isn’t it so many people spend thousands of pounds and years of their lives - travelling the world to find themselves … but do we ever try and answer the question “Why are we all so lost???”
Each of us are longing to find ourselves, our place, and our purpose - we have a Hiraeth for real identity, real home and real meaning.
If I could channel my inner Dai Woolridge for a moment - we’ve all got the longing for belonging
I’M CONVINCED THAT THE ONLY THING THAT CAN REALLY SATISFY THAT LONGING, THAT HIRAETH - IS JESUS.
A song that spoke to me in those dark days of Global shutdown was Graves into Gardens - with these opening words:
I searched the world
But it couldn't fill me
Man's empty praise
And treasures that fade
Are never enough
Then You came along
And put me back together
And every desire
Is now satisfied
Here in Your love
So that’s what it’s all about - Hiraeth Community - for those longing for home, wanting to help people to find their way and finish strong. -
"THE SEED" // A POEM OUR PROBLEMS, THEIR ORIGINS AND GOD'S SOLUTION
You remember the story I hope that you do
Of God who created, everything, everyone even you
When the God who spoke created, He created it good
& mankind could enjoy it just as he should
But the problem with people that you’ll soon come to see
Is that no one is good, not you, no not even me
Who exactly is ‘good’ that’s an important question
Answering that is life’s most important lesson
Give me a rule & I’m sure to break it
If it looks good to my eyes then I’m sure to take it
We see this in life as we fight & we thieve
& we see it in the beginning with God’s Adam & Eve
“All that I’ve made is given to you freely
Every fruit, every veg, it’s yours, the lot, really
But you mustn't eat the fruit from that one seed
No rules but that one.” the Lord God decreed
& so they enjoyed it the world they’d been given
Living with God on earth as in heaven
They ate & they drank & were never in need
Living life as they ought, how the Lord God decreed
Except until one day when a foe not a friend
Came to whisper his lies & God’s laws to amend
"Really? He said that, he outlawed that seed
Are you sure you heard him right, what the Lord God decreed
Did He really say that? In God can you trust
Restricting your freedoms, He treats you like dust
A God who denies you puts me at unease
Take a moment & think what the Lord God really decrees
He knows you’ll be like Him when you eat from that tree
The fruit He’s forbidden will help you to see. Knowledge of ‘good’ & what’s ‘evil’ proceeds
That’s why He stops you, the Lord God in decrees.”
Grasp your own destiny, take life by the horns
Eat from that tree, look there's no thorns
The fruit looks so tasty & ripe from that seed
Eat it now both of you that’s my decree”
The serpent had tricked them, they bought all his lies
Following him not God looked best in their eyes
Eve took it & ate & then gave it to Adam
& he ate it & enjoyed it but at once a great chasm
A divide had appeared, not one you could see
Between Adam & God & His beautiful Eve
God came to greet them & He noticed their deed
At once His heart sank, they’d broken His decree
“Not me, Blame her, she’s the one who led me astray”
“Not me either, the serpents the one who made us his prey”
“He asked if you loved us then why you decreed?
What was so terribly wonderful about that seed
& now we know it’s not the fruit that’s the problem
It’s our hearts, not the rules, our inability to follow the
Naked we stand here, ashamed rule breakers
Rebelers against you who loved us & made us"
They were right of course when they surveyed the scene
Everything, all creation had somehow lost its sheen
God hadn’t come to dwell as before
He’d come to judge them for breaking His law
The verdict was labour, hard labour at that
For the man the kind that breaks your back
For the woman in childbirth she’d know her sentence
& death to all people, each one of their descendants
But God wasn’t happy to simply hand out that verdict
A promise came also, so sweet you should’ve heard it
“A rescue will come to you both from her seed”
A rescue how wonderful, what the Lord God decreed!
“It won't be pretty what He’ll have to do
To live & to die before making things new
But I promise to you, to the creatures I love
We can be together again if you trust in His blood”
“Who is Good?” Not Adam, not Eve
My guess is that it isn’t you either, I’m certain not me
Only one was good & you know Him as Jesus
He came from the Father to save us, to free us
It was love in the beginning & love in the end
Love that created & love that repaired
“God Is Love.” I’m sure you’ve heard
But that Love is seen in the incarnate WORD
Jesus it was who spoke the creation
Jesus it was who gave live through oration
Jesus it was who banished from Eden
Jesus it was who promised to save them
Jesus it was who took on our flesh
Jesus it was who di -
Prayers from the Cross of Jesus: # 7 "Into Your Hands I Commend My Spirit"
Contemplating and meditating on the 7 Cries of Jesus on the Cross recorded in the gospels.
In this prayer, a reflection on what Christ has achieved as much as what He said, and we're challenged to trust God in the most difficult of circumstances.
Far too often we let circumstances and suffering cause us to turn away from the Father. But Jesus, at the end of it all, knew into who’s hands to commend His very self.
Lord help us to do likewise
Written and read by Sammy Davies
Inspired by Luke 23:46
It isn’t easy
Choosing light when darkness surrounds
Trusting God
When life has been so hard
And yet
Here walks Jesus
Beaten
Mocked
Scorned
Entrusting Himself
Into His Father's hands
Life is a shadowy place
Through which we all traverse
Why would we not entrust ourselves to the Father too?
Choosing You, our God
Is never an easy thing to do
Suffering and circumstance
Call us, all too often, away from your care
But Jesus knew, when all was said and done
That You, our Father in Heaven
Are worth giving our lives too
So, we commit ourselves today
Rescue us from the power of those around us
Preserve us in the presence of our persecutors
Make Your face shine on us
Let us experience Your salvation
Do not let our cries go unanswered
Save for the boasting of our enemies
What lies before us
In Jesus
Is ever so sweet
Give us eyes to see through this momentary darkness
To glimpse Your wonderful light
Amen -
Prayers from the Cross of Jesus: # 6 "It Is Finished"
Contemplating and meditating on the 7 Cries of Jesus on the Cross recorded in the gospels.
In this prayer, a reflection on what Christ has achieved as much as what He said, we can consider how the old sacrifices were repeated day after day, year after year. With respect to those old sacrifices, they were “finished” only to be repeated the next.
It should overwhelm with thankfulness that what Jesus is done is complete indeed. And yet we are still longing for His work in us to be completed.
Written and read by Sammy Davies
Inspired by John 19:30
Over
Finished
Accomplished
Your suffering has ceased
Our salvation achieved
For You came to make a way
And a way You made - through blood and tears
How hard we would otherwise struggle
To make ourselves acceptable
How burdensome the task
To make ourselves somehow ‘lovely’
How costly it had seemed to offer again and again
How costly was the single gift You gave
Once sacrifices were on repeat
But this Lamb is enough
You hung where our lives lead
And in rescuing, deliver us where You are
You have set us apart
So make us HOLY in our lives
You have changed everything for us
So LORD please change us
There is nothing we can do
So put us to the work You have prepared
Amen -
Prayers from the Cross of Jesus: # 5 "I Am Thirsty"
Contemplating and meditating on the 7 Cries of Jesus on the Cross recorded in the gospels.
In this prayer, a reflection on what Christ has achieved as much as what He said, we're given a riddle to unravel. It’s a strange thought that the one who promised to fill us up - he thirsted. In an odd way it could make Jesus less appealing - after all you wouldn’t take business advice from someone who’s bankrupt would you?!
But Jesus, obviously, is different. He “became thirsty” precisely because he had come to stand in our place. He became poor in order that in him we would become rich. His thirst didn’t last - and because of His great love for us neither must ours.
Written and read by Sammy Davies
Inspired by John 19:28
Who knows what it is to hunger?
Who knows what it is to thirst?
Could God?
Creator of all things
Sufficient in Himself
We certainly do
In this world of our own making
Where few have too much
While many have none at all
We know what it is to hunger
We know what it is to thirst
We know life twisted and broken and emptied out
The Bread of Life on offer for us
Yet we turn aside
The Spring of Living Water
But we kneel at another spot
How can we be full?
How can our thirst be quenched?
When we have strayed so far?
The rich became poor
For our sakes
The innocent became guilty
For our sakes
The One who supplies all things ran out
For our sakes
If you will forgo all things for our sakes
Is there anything that You will not supply?
We thank You Lord Jesus
For that thirst
For Your real suffering
To set us free & to fill us up
Keep us close to
We would choose no other place
Than sat at Your table
Recipients of Your generous Grace
Amen -
Prayers from the Cross of Jesus: # 4 "Why Have You Forsaken Me?"
Contemplating and meditating on the 7 Cries of Jesus on the Cross recorded in the gospels.
In this prayer, a reflection on what Christ has achieved as much as what He said, we're confronted with the enormity of what Jesus succumbed to. The One who called himself ‘the Light of the World’ was enveloped in darkness. It is a profound juxtaposition which speaks loudly to those of us willing to listen.
Matthew includes details about supernatural darkness, the saviour's silence and the eventual return of the light which make this cry, the question of forsakenness, all the more powerful. The darkness reigned while Christ was silent. But at the sound of His voice once more light returned.
This prayer is an attempt to wrestle with the magnitude of what Jesus endured for our sake and to gently call us into a place where we desire His light and life to be experienced more and more.
Written by Sammy Davies
Inspired by Matthew 27:45-46
Before You spoke there was darkness
Without You, there is not
No life, no joy, no light
Yet into that darkness, You spoke and there was
First light, then - everything
And in Your light life & joy
But we chose something else
We chose to turn from You
To cling to the shadows
Life in the dark is difficult
Life in the dark is hard
Life in the dark is not what You desire
So, You came
Not just speaking into the darkness
But walking …
The Light of the World stepped down
Into the darkness we have created
The Light shone - but we did not recognise it
And darkness schemed, darkness conspired
To extinguish the Light so that death might reign
In darkness You hung
Creation in mourning for its Creator
The weight of our rejection on Your shoulders
In darkness You hung
And silence
For 3 hours darkness filled the air
And when You spoke it was not calling out the light
When You spoke it was despair at what darkness had brought
But despair is not the end
Darkness does not have the final word
Even then the light returned
At the very sound of Your voice death and darkness fled
And life and light came forth
The shadows receded and Your glory shone
We had chosen death
But You were bringing life
We rejected
But You reconciled
You who knew no sin
Became sin
So that we could be
The Righteousness of God
We still know darkness
Around us and in us
Speak again O Lord
Make it flee wherever it is found
Amen