I had placed the Diocese of Springfield on St. Mary's daily corporate prayer list when it was publicly announced that I was a candidate to be a candidate back in June. When I was not selected as a candidate at the Synod in August, I removed the intercession from our community prayer list (though I continued, and continue, to pray).
Except. It seems as many times as I remove the Diocese of Springfield from a corporate prayer list, it pops up on another. At our 8 Eucharist this morning, once again, in the Prayers of the People, as we prayed for the Church, there those Illinois clergy and people were again, as our Deacon Russ prayed, ".......and for the Diocese of Springfield."
Since this week is when the three candidates will be walking about and meeting the folks in Springfield, I guess the Holy Spirit, once again, knew better than I did who St. Mary's was to lift in prayer. After all, St. Paul did write in his epistle to the Christians gathered in Rome (Chapter 8):
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Pray for Christ's body, the Church, especially for the clergy and people of the Diocese of Springfield as they take counsel together to select the bishop whom God has already chosen.
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