Summer Series July 6, 2025

Light a candle, take some deep breaths, or say a prayer to draw your attention to God’s presence. 

Watch this week’s video reflecting on Psalm 103 and the practice of encountering others.

After watching the video, you are invited to experiment with the practice of encountering others using Psalm 103. You will pray through the psalm three times, with a different centre of focus each time. 

1. Read Psalm 103 
   • This first time, the words of the psalm are for yourself. Drink in this hymn praise, reminding your own soul that God’s love for you is so much bigger, wider, and deeper than any of our sins. 
   • Read all 22 verses. 
2. Read Psalm 103 again
   • This second time, place another in the centre of the psalm. Pray these words for someone in your life, that they would feel blessed by God’s everlasting compassion. 
   • You can read the whole psalm again, or you may wish to shorten it to verses 1-14. 
3. Read Psalm 103 a final time
   • This last time, pick a stranger to place as the recipient of this blessing. You can think of a specific person like a politician or celebrity, or you can think of someone you have passed by in your journey. Pray these words for the stranger and practice taking on a posture of love and compassion for encountering others. 
   • This is not intended to be a prayer to change the other, rather it is a blessing, that the stranger receives compassion and mercy as well. 
   • If you have selected a particularly challenging stranger, you might find you only make it through verses 1-5. 

What is your “natural posture” when you encounter others? Are you comfortable with loving the stranger? Or are you quick to put up walls of self-protection? Recall a specific time when you have encountered others with either of these postures.

Reflect on what it means to encounter others, to pray for others, or to ask for a blessing on others, without wanting to change or fix the other. What is it like to simply encounter others?

To help develop a posture of loving the stranger, what practice do you want to try out this summer? 

Conclude this time of prayer, pondering and reflection in a way which feels meaningful to you. 

Go in peace, to pay attention. May it be so.