Teach Us To Pray

Psalm 27 orients us to God's presence, and calls us to practice that presence in every moment of our lives. This is what "Coram Deo" means, "before the face of God." What if we lived every moment with the awareness that we are in God's presence?

Episode 52: Before the Face of God: Practicing God's Presence

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement and Theologian in Residence, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify.

RESOURCES

• "The Lord of the Rings; The Riders of Rohan" - Eliott Tordo feat. Victor Macabies "The Death of Theoden," Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers "What is Prayer and How to Begin" - Conversation with Roberta Bondi, interview by Krista Tippet

SUMMARY

The seven last words of Christ on the cross end with a prayer of trust and surrender: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." This dying prayer of Jesus can be a prayer we live and work by.

Episode 51: Trusting the Father (Last Words of Christ Pt. 7)

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement and Theologian in Residence, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify.

RESOURCES

• "I Surrender Now" by Mumford and Sons
• Pie Jesus, Recorded at Fremont Presbyterian Church; Cheryl Eshoff and Kalen Skinner, soloists

Jesus' sixth word from the Cross, "It is finished," is a whispered victory cry. The momentum of God's eternal love overtakes the momentum of sin and evil in the world, in in our lives. We may not fully be able to understand this cry, but we can receive it, in prayer.

Episode 50: It is Finished (Last Words of Christ Pt. 6)

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement and Theologian in Residence, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify.

RESOURCES

• Judah and the Lion, "Beautiful Anyway" Schola Cantorum of Saint Peter's in the Loop, Chicago: "This is the Feast"

In the fifth word from the cross, Jesus says simply, "I thirst." This is an expression of Jesus' humanity. Because of the Incarnation, which was the intersection of eternity with history, we can be those who experience what is eternal within ordinary, earthly moments.

Episode 49: I Thirst: The Humanity of Christ and Finding Eternity in Time (Last Words of Christ Pt. 5)

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement and Theologian in Residence, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify.

RESOURCES

• A Collection of Prayers for Our Daily Work
• "Sleeping at Last" by Saturn
• "The Dry Salvages" by TS Eliot

Christ's lament from the cross, "My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?" is the fourth and most important of the seven last words. By praying this prayer, Jesus transforms our own experiences of godforsakenness, enabling our words of lament to become seedbeds for hope.

RESOURCES

• "Not Alone" by Patty Griffin

"Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother." With these words, as he was dying on the cross, directed to Mary and to the disciple John, Jesus founded the church. By praying these words our vision is transformed, enabling us to see anyone and everyone as a beloved child of God, and so continue to build Christ's church.

John 19:23-27 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to fulfill what the scripture says, "They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots." And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Episode 47: The Church at the Foot of the Cross (Last Words of Christ Pt. 3)

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement and Theologian in Residence, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify.

Resources

• Ra-Ra Folklore d'Haiti
• "I Arise Today," by Emmaus Music

As Jesus is dying on the cross, a conversation occurs between the two convicts who were crucified on either side of him. One of these men then says to Jesus, "Remember me, when you come into your kingdom." Then Jesus says, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." By allowing this conversation to shape our conversation with God in prayer, our lives and work can become cruciform, taking the form of Christ crucified.

Luke 23:38-43 There was also an inscription over him,[a] "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him,[b] saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise."

Episode 46: Jesus, Remember Me (Last Words of Christ Pt. 2)

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify

RESOURCES

• Taize "Jesus Remember Me"
• Gandalf and Pippin in The Lord of the Rings
• Rembrandt's "Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves" c. 1653

In this first episode of a seven-part series on the last words of Christ, we examine Jesus' prayer "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." In order to forgive we must first realize our deep need to be forgiven. We also can pray this prayer before we really "mean it."

Episode 45: The Hardest Prayer: Forgiveness (Last Words of Christ Pt. 1)

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify.

RESOURCES

• "Ah Holy Jesus How Hast Thou Offended" by the Redeemer Choir
• Artwork courtesy of Andersen Hoffmeyer, circa 2011, aged 6 - "Jesus Between the two Thieves"

Psalm 115 is a profound examination of the shadow side of our souls, what the Bible calls 'idolatry.' In this episode we examine how our souls both "make idols" and are in turn made by them.

Episode 44: Souls are Idol Making Factories (Then Sings my Soul Pt. 3)

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify.

Resources

• Simulacrum
• "Numbers" by Wheezer

God has designed the soul for beholding, and we become what we behold. 2 Corinthians 3:17-19 lays out how this works, and how prayer can be a participation in beholding Christ and becoming more like him.

Episode 43: Soul Work (Then Sings My Soul Pt 2)

Hosted by Jeff Hoffmeyer, Denver Institute's Vice President of Advancement, this podcast seeks to focus on the practice of prayer through scripture as a primary way to know, trust, and rest in God in our daily work and life. I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at [email protected] with your feedback.

Do you like Teach Us To Pray? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Now available on iTunes and Spotify.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NIV)

RESOURCES

• Chris Rice, "How Great Thou Art"

• Nathaniel Hawthorn, "The Great Stone Face"