Bethany Besteman

A prayer based on Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52, the gospel reading for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

A prayer based on Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 the gospel reading for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

A prayer based on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, the gospel reading for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

A prayer based on Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, the gospel reading for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

A prayer based on Matthew 10:40-42, the gospel reading for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

We can use language to open the door to true worship by the grace of God, but he makes that worship true in every heart, not us. Repetition can be the tool needed on a particular Sunday to hammer through the walls of hardened hearts or it can be the means by which worship rises to a climactic crescendo of praise. We labor in the fields, but God brings about the harvest.

Because that blood in the tank, the blood nourishing the church, didn’t really come from the worship leaders; it doesn’t come from the Pastor, the elders or the deacons. We are only ever graced to be conduits.

Thus to write poetry is to partake in the process of giving form to something formless…By creating, we act in hope as we push back the darkness of isolation and disconnection. Moreover, by creating we worship: we act out our imago dei, imitating the creator and making good out of his Good.

These Sonnets are written to follow the order of worship and can be used by individuals for personal reflection, or in worship with households, small groups, or full congregations interspersed throughout worship or as a poetic offering.

While these days we readily associate the word Corona with the COVID-19 virus, in English literature it has another meaning entirely. Bethany explains: