Prayer 2091: For times of transition or trial

Most Merciful God,
Creator, Redeemer, and Comforter,
may your name be blessed among all peoples,
and your tenderness be praised from the heavens
unto all the reaches of creation.

God of Compassion,
be with all who watch and wait,
and strengthen those who have a race to run,
that they may press on under the wings of your love.

Gather the suffering under the lea of your mercy, Lord Christ,
and let them turn to You in sureness and trust,
knowing that you are their Companion in all things.

Bend near, O Spirit of Hope,
and let the light of God shine upon us,
and warm our hearts with the promise of your peace,
surpassing any that we can grasp.

Bless the hearts of the sorrowing,
that they may raise up thanks
for the love that surrounds them.

Holy One, anoint us with your lovingkindness
and give us hearts to serve and praise You always.
Lord, press the kiss of your benediction and healing
upon those for whom we pray,
precious in your sight,
as they turn to you in faith and trust.

Amen.

Prayer, day 2090: Feeding the 5000

Almighty God,
we thank You for sheltering us through the night,
and watching over us with a love that never fades:
accept our prayers and praises,
and guide us in holiness this day.

Blessed Savior, you fed the multitudes in the wilderness:
likewise, you sustain us and nourish us
with the sweetness of your commandments,
which melt on the tongue like honey,
and revive and restore our souls.
May we follow in your path of compassion and healing today, Lord Christ,
and seek reconciliation and justice,
rooted in your abundant mercy living in our hearts.

We find our center within the shelter of your embrace,
O Blessed Trinity,
O Creating, Redeeming, Life-Giving One.
Consecrate us, O Holy Spirit,
as faithful witnesses to God's abundance
in all our journeys today.
Shine the light of your countenance, O Holy One,
upon all who call upon you in joy or trouble.

Amen.
1872




Image: the Feeding of the 5000 with five loaves and two fish, detail from a mosaic at Sant'Apollonare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy.

Prayer 2089: Resting within the embrace of Christ

God of All Mercy,
we turn to You in adoration and praise:
let us bow the knee of our hearts
as we lay our prayers before You.

Give us courage and initiative
to bear your gospel into the world,
that our lives may be testimony to the world
of the grace, wisdom, and peace of Christ.

Vouchsafe to your keeping, Blessed Jesus,
all who are troubled, endangered,
or adrift in a sea of cares.
May we rest within your strong embrace, O God,
even in the midst of the storm,
for You are our crag and our fortress.

Spirit of the Living God,
reign within our hearts and minds,
and set us free from sin and cynicism today.
Baptized into the hope of your kingdom, Precious Lord,
set the seal of your blessing upon all who rest in You,
as we humbly pray.

Amen.

Prayer, day 2088: On the Feast of St. Teresa of Avila

Most Merciful God, we praise You, and turn our faces toward the rising light of hope that throws off the blanket of night. Guide and direct our hearts to You today, O God, knowing you journey with us in love.

May we send all our thoughts after You, O God, seeking You with all that we are. May we act out of love in all we do, for love alone is the measure of all things. May we open our hearts that the love of Christ may overflow from us and into the dark corners of the world. Let our hearts in prayer be ever turned to You, Lord Christ, that we be led as children of God through your example.

All that we are we lay at your feet, O Holy One: bless and sanctify us through our offering of love. Place your hand of blessing upon all who call upon You, especially those for whom we now pray.

Amen.

Leaning In: Sermon for Proper 23 B

Many people over the centuries have listened to the story of this rich man and heard only a condemnation of him, and of those like him. However, there is an important facet overlooked in this story: this same man is the only person within Mark’s gospel of whom it is said that Jesus loved him. Let that sink in for a minute.

We already see that the man is pious, and in running up and kneeling before Jesus he treats and addresses Jesus humbly, with respect. Yet the man asks Jesus a question that is inwardly focused, which is our second clue about his character. Jesus answers him by citing from the second half of the Ten Commandments—and these are the ones that have to do with our interactions and relationships with each other. Jesus’s inclusion of a prohibition against defrauding is actually not one of the Ten Commandments, but is in the spirit of the prohibitions against false witness and stealing.

Looking at this man, kneeling at the feet of a wandering teacher, Jesus truly sees him and loves him. After all, especially in Mark’s gospel, people who kneel in front of Jesus are seeking healing of one sort or another. This man knows he needs healing. He is just unsure of what that will be, exactly. Jesus loves this man, and knows his heart. 

Yet his next words must seem truly ironic: “You still lack something,” he observes to the man.

It must have seemed shocking for Jesus to tell a wealthy man that there could be ANYTHING that he lacks. He has shown himself to be aware of the feeling of something missing in his life to even come chase down Jesus, for even though he has followed all the law here he is, seeking guidance. Jesus wants to heal this man, even as Jesus himself is on the way to Jerusalem.

The man is stuck in a transactional pattern, though, when it comes to his relationship with God. And boy, is that a common habit for a lot of us, or what? We think if we just pray a certain way, if we bargain with God, we will get what we want. This man is no different. The man asks what he can DO to “inherit” eternal life, and as a wealthy person, he probably knows all about inheritance.

Yet eternal life is not a possession. Eternal life is outwardly focused, a way of living in which one recognizes and rejoiced at the abundance of God’s grace, and responds to that grace by seeking the welfare of others. Eternal life, life abundant, is rooted in the now as much as it looks toward the future. Jesus reminded us last week, with his arms around little children, that “whoever does not RECEIVE the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

In other words, we can’t DO anything to earn eternal life. We must instead open our hearts to the love of God acting within us that we may RECEIVE eternal life through God’s grace. That’s what Jesus means when he reminds us that “with mortals, salvation is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.” When we open our hearts up to embrace our dependence upon God and each other, to see that dependence as a blessing rather than a weakness, then we are open to receiving and entering the kingdom of God.

Wealth has a tendency to insulate, and that is just as true today as it was in the time of Mark. Wealth can make us think that we are completely independent, and have no need of others, much less of God. Wealth is a form of power, and power often blinds us to our call to the consideration of the good of the community. It has a tendency to make one put their guard up, to hold themselves aloof from real relationship with others for fear that they will be used. The problem with possessions is that they can begin to possess us.  Wealth can become a false idol to worship, which takes us back to the commandments—the very first one. 

Yet, loving that man as he does, Jesus doesn’t command him—there’s been enough talk of commandments. Instead, what Jesus does is that he INVITES the man into relationship—real relationship with God. He invites the man to participate in the abundance of God within his own life, and to free himself of all that is holding him back from seeking the heart of eternal life. In his case it is not his money alone but the fear that his riches are a symptom of. That fear keeps him focused on the past, rather than embracing the present, much less the future. The problem for this man is that, in the end, his possessions are something that he loves more than becoming a disciple of Jesus. And that’s a danger for everyone that hearkens back to the first and greatest commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

But the second part of that formula we have heard repeatedly is this: You shall love your neighbors as yourself. This means that we are reminded that we are called to live in community, sharing each others’ joys and pains, seeking the common good in joyous response to the love of God, active and life-giving, that animates our very breath and heartbeat. Salvation isn’t about making sure we go to heaven when we die. Salvation begins right now, when we let the healing love of Jesus free us enough to love each other and care for each other, heal us enough that those who see us in our daily lives witness an unmistakable testimony to the power of God’s healing, reconciling love in the world. We have a tendency to keep even our spiritual focus turned inward only, and to attempt to control God by making deals with God.

Having an inward focus for our spirituality is vital—but then our spirituality must look outward, as well, to live out our spiritual truths and journeys in our daily lives, for the good of the world, for the repair of the world—what our Jewish friend call tikkun olam.

We cannot DO anything to receive eternal life—except open our hearts and be willing to receive that grace and let it take us where it will.
Into hope.
Into community.
Into love.
Into life itself.
Eternal life animates us to do and speak and witness to the blessings of God’s abundant love in our lives, and calls us to care about what happens to our neighbors.

I’m sure some preachers have been led to use this scripture during stewardship season to try to guilt their listeners into giving to the stewardship campaign. I am convinced that that is an abuse of scripture. Jesus doesn’t use guilt or fear on the man who comes before him. He doesn't promise the man that he can buy his way into heaven. He loves him, and seeks to set him free from the fears that prevent the man from following Jesus. 

These fears become a vicious cycle, too—further isolating him from those around him, further diminishing his power to work in his world for transformation, for the love of others. The man is paralyzed by the fear that there is never going to be enough. It is a common fear that holds many of us back.

And that affects parishioners and parishes, too. Some may be still reacting to wounds they have suffered at the hands of others—even sometimes people in the church. Jesus seeks to heal us and free us of all that holds us back in our growth as disciples.

We too, find ourselves on our knees before him. Can we take hold of the hand of Jesus and follow him? Can we open our imaginations to the possibility of the good that this parish does and will do in the world, if we invest our hearts and our hopes in this community as disciples, so that together this parish can continue to be a beacon of Christ’s light in the world?

Like that man, Jesus is calling us to follow him. He is asking us to “lean in,”—to take seriously the love God has for us, and trust in the attitude of abundance that the Way of Jesus leads us to walk in. Jesus calls us to let go of our fear of scarcity in order to truly be free, grateful, and at ease here in the midst of this new family Jesus calls us to make together as the beloved members of this outpost of Christ’s body. Can we instead rejoice in the blessings we receive here together enough to go all in? I believe we can. Together.

Amen.

Preached at the 505 on October 13, and at 8:00 and 10:15 am on October 14, at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Ellisville.

Readings:
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Psalm 90:12-17
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31

Prayer 2087: 21st Sunday After Pentecost

Holy One,
in hope and trust we come before You,
grateful for all You have given us,
seeking your healing and your wisdom.

Help us to go deeper
into our journey of faithfulness, discipleship, and hope,
that we can bear your light into the world, Blessed Jesus,
and testify to the power of your healing love.
Strengthen us that we may let go
of all that weighs us down in fear
and lean in to the riches of your grace, Lord,
giving our selves to your service.

Spirit of Healing,
spread your wings over our spirits,
and grant us new life today,
for we know we stand in the shade of your mercy and grace.
Pour out the balm of your comfort
over the concerns of our hearts,
especially upon those for whom we pray.

Amen.

Prayer, day 2086: Inspired by the 23rd Psalm

O Lord, You are our shepherd;
help us to be better sheep.

When You give us green pastures,
help us to be grateful and not refuse to eat.
When You lead us beside still waters,
help us quiet our souls and be refreshed.

When our cups run over,
help us not to obsess about the mess
but shout for joy at the abundance you give us always.

When You lead us to right pathways,
help us not to be hardheaded and go astray.
When we are in the darkest valley,
help us to remember that You are ALWAYS with us.

When you spread a table before us
in the presence of our enemies,
help us invite them to join us,
that their hearts may be turned by love.

Help us to stop bleating long enough
to hear Your voice calling us to You.
May we remember
that your goodness and mercy follow all of us
all the days of our lives.

O Comforter, hear the prayers of your people as we pray.

Amen.

Prayer 2085

In peace, we pray to You, O God;
in times of testing and turmoil
we seek the solace of your shoulder
and the shelter of your hand upon us.
May we abide with you always, Lord Christ,
and walk in your ways and your wisdom.
Holy One, strengthen us and lead us
to live into the faith we profess,
to put actions to our words,
to humbly and joyfully serve You and each other.
Merciful One, your love is from everlasting;
draw all who seek you within the lea of your grace,
and let your benediction rest upon these beloveds.

Amen.

Prayer 2084

O God, the night has ended,
and a new day awaits us.
We seek to be thankful for the joys it will bring
and strong to face its challenges.
You are with us always,
both in the rejoicing
and in the fight.
May we reach out
not only for our own cares and concerns,
but to help those around us.
We may not be able to do everything, Lord,
but we certainly hope to do what we can.
May we live this day as a credit to our faith in You.
We ask your care and blessing upon these, your children.

Amen.

Prayer, day 2083

Most Merciful God,
receive our prayers and praises,
that we may serve You in unity and peace.
Give us discerning hearts and a will to serve,
singing with joy as we are called by our Shepherd's voice.
Guide us by your light, O Christ,
and open our eyes to your truth,
that we may be renewed and transformed.
May the beauty of God enlighten us,
that we may reflect and testify to the Light,
animated by love and wisdom.
Shield and comfort all who are in distress, O Holy One,
and make us bearers of peace and unity in your Name.
Gather within your embrace
all those for whom we pray, Blessed Jesus.

Amen.

Prayer 2082

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord,
gathered within your embrace
we arise to greet the beauty of this day,
eager to walk in love and faithfulness,
led by the light, grace, and reconciling example of Christ.
Almighty Creator,
You have woven the night sky and morning clouds
into a tapesty of beauty,
reminding us of your promise of faithfulness--
You who call the stars by name
and have inscibed each of us on your hand.
Sustain us with your word, Blessed Jesus,
that our hearts be transformed in love and compassion,
that we tenderly care for each other
in witness to all You have done for us.
Renew us, O Holy Spirit,
in generosity and lovingkindness,
that we may see and know our mutual dependence
as one body, one spirit, one creation.
Merciful One, pour out your grace and healing
upon all for whom we pray.

Amen.

Prayer 2081

Most Merciful God,
our spirits bless your Holy Name
as we dedicate this day to your service.
Help us to use our prayer to You, O God,
as courage for action in restoring the common good
as the fixed mark to guide our life together
as disciples and witnesses of your gospel.
Strengthen us in compassion and grace, O Savior,
that we may renounce the leanness in our souls,
and instead embody your abundance and justice
which seeks the reconciliation of all things.
Give us the heart to work for peace,
a peace whose foundation is the solid rock of brotherhood,
seeking the welfare of others in the name of love.
Spirit of the Living God,
anoint us with the wisdom from on high,
and pour out your blessing upon those we now name.

Amen.

Interdependence as Gift: Sermon for Proper 22 B

When I was a kid, there was an elderly widow lady named Mrs. Brady who lived a couple of streets over from us. We didn’t see her very often, but every now and then we would see her sitting at the window as we played, and she would waggle her fingers at us and smile as she watched us playing in the vacant lot near her house, or we’d see her toddle to the mailbox on unsteady legs, and we’d shout “Hello, ma’am” all together when she looked at us and wave, because she was pretty much completely deaf. She’d almost always respond back “Hello, honeys!” in a sweet soprano drawl.

Mrs. Brady’s house was the oldest one in the neighborhood, built of brown and golden Oklahoma fieldstone. She had a son who would come over about once a week, and he himself was no spring chicken, if you know what I mean, but he’d mow the yard and repair the fence. Just across the street from her tiny house were modern, fancy, large homes with manicured lawns, homes that had been built on what had been fields on the edge of town, homes with backyards as big as football fields, which in Oklahoma is everyone's dream. On our side of the street, the homes were small, two and three bedroom homes at most. But Mrs. Brady’s was the tiniest of them all.

Then one summer, we noticed that the lawn wasn’t getting mowed. The grass and weeds grew higher and higher. Word got out that Mrs. Brady’s son had died. And then one of my friends named Cynthia who lived nearer to her house told me that one of the neighbors across the street had called the city and complained about Mrs. Brady’s unkempt yard. She had gotten a citation for being a neighborhood nuisance, and the city was threatening to fine her, and then send a crew to mow her yard and bill her for it. They gave her a few days to fix the issue. The city demanded that she follow the laws about lawn maintenance, even though she had no way of doing it herself.

Even as young as we were, we knew there was no way she could afford any of that, and we worried for her. Then, one Saturday, we were playing in the vacant lot, and we looked, and in Mrs. Brady's yard the grass was mowed, the flowerbeds were weeded, and dead limbs were trimmed from the oak tree that towered over her yard and house. We took a break from our playing for lunch, and agreed to meet up again afterward to resume our game.

My friend Cynthia had told her mom about Mrs. Brady, that she was worried the city had fined her. Instead, what Cynthia learned is that several of the families in the neighborhood, outraged at the situation, had joined together and created a rotation. Each week, a different family would take turns mowing Mrs. Brady’s yard and attending to other yard work.

Because Mrs. Brady was a proud woman, and because Oklahoma in the summer is no joke, they would get up early in the morning on Saturdays and get this done, hopefully without Mrs. Brady catching them, which her deafness actually helped. For as long as I lived there, this was what I witnessed, too. After working all week as mechanics, bus drivers, truckers, teachers, and housewives, the neighbors would take turns early on Saturdays making sure Mrs. Brady could stay in her home. This example stayed with me a long time.

I thought about the story of Mrs. Brady and her neighbors as I was pondering this week’s gospel, which is a hard gospel in a lot of ways. Our text from Mark today includes two teachings of Jesus that may seem hard to reconcile at first. First there is a question about divorce. And then there is a continuation of the discussion about “little ones” or children that we’ve been hearing for the last two weeks.

Both of these teachings can be used to miss the point that Jesus is trying to make. In his teaching about divorce, Jesus makes a point that is important for us to hear and hear again, especially in the time in which we live: what is lawful is not the same thing as what is right. We all hope that the goal of the law is goodness, but even good laws can be applied in ways that subvert that.

Something being lawful is a lower standard to something being ethical and good. For instance, many good people violated laws requiring the handing over of Jews, Roma, and other oppressed groups under Nazism in World War II. They were lawbreakers, and many of them paid with their lives. Rosa Parks willingly broke the laws of Montgomery, Alabama, and she was arrested, jailed, and punished. It took a solid year of protest and boycott to change that law.

Jesus’s teaching about children here has unfortunately been used to infantilize those who are vulnerable or who need our help, which is always a danger even among the well-meaning. It can lead to romanticizing children as being mere symbols of pureness and innocence instead of being real people with good days and bad days like the rest of us. This teaching has sometimes been used to deny the full dignity of the vulnerable. Mrs. Brady was caught in the merciless net of the law, and it took her neighbors to rescue her from it, but her neighbors took care to maintain her dignity as they helped her.

Make no mistake—children were not romanticized in Jesus’s time. Children who were too young to work had no status in that society. They were not “welcomed” outside of their families. They were socially invisible. Yet they were absolutely dependent and vulnerable.

In the religious law of Moses, men were allowed to throw away their wives (that’s literally what the word used in Moses’s law meant), and their wives had no recourse. Women were not allowed to protest. A divorced woman had no legal status, lost the right to own property, and would often be forced to turn to begging or prostitution in order to live. Under Roman law, both men and women could sue for divorce, and Jesus, his followers, and the Pharisees lived under Roman law as their civil law.

Throughout most of human history, marriage was a legal contract in which a woman—actually, usually a young girl-- was handed from her father to her husband whether she liked it or not, and the deal was that she would provide children for the husband in exchange for protection and a home in which she would work for the rest of her life. Although this does still exist, even here in the United States, as much as we may wish it were otherwise, our modern context of marriage is usually different from the context of scripture. First of all, we no longer practice polygamy in most of the Western world. Second of all, marriage here in the West is normatively formed on the basis of a romantic relationship between adults. Our evolving expectation is that marriage is a partnership of equals.

Jesus’s teachings here deal with two groups of vulnerable people, people who were often overlooked in both law and in society. As Jesus’s citation of Genesis reminds us, there is something fundamental at stake: God’s intention at the beginning of creation is that we should recognize our dependence upon one another, and our dependence on God. Jesus is teaching that law and custom often can be applied to the benefit of the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. 

Sometimes marriages need to end, especially if there is cruelty, emotional or physical abuse, or even stone-cold indifference involved. But I am convinced that this week’s gospel also related to last week’s gospel in a significant way. 

Last week I talked to you all about a “covenant of salt,” and about the challenge of being salt in the world as disciples of Jesus. Jesus again reminds us in this reading the importance of our covenants with each other, and the mutual dependence that is required in our relationships. People, no matter who they are, are not disposable. Our promises to and relationships with each other should not be treated as disposable, either.

We live in a time when the voices and presence of “the little ones” among us are ever more marginalized. We live in a culture that trumpets independence as the highest virtue, often to the detriment of our common bonds of decency, amity, consideration, and neighborliness. We live in a time when people angrily assert their individual rights, even if that right endangers others, but rarely mention the responsibilities, the decency, and concern for the common good that make a society one of ethics as well as law. 

The problem with this false gospel of independence is that it leaves the vulnerable as disposable, as less-than. It makes dependence and need a personal failing rather than part of what makes us human. And this was the false doctrine, this hardness of heart, that Jesus is teaching about in our gospel today.

Hardness of heart is one of the greatest sins in our world today, too. Disdain for others who are vulnerable or who are different from us is applauded, held up as an example of “survival of the fittest.” The “little ones” of today whom we are called to welcome are the same ones that often are the most overlooked in our society.

But get this—they are also the ones Jesus spent the most time with, healing them, embracing them, forgiving them, and welcoming them, to the disgust of those same religious purists.

The differently-abled,
the mentally ill,
the poor,
the homeless,
outcasts,
notorious sinners,
women who were alone in the world,
women who had suffered abuse or rejection,
the hungry,
the unclean,
the diseased,
children,
oppressed and despised minority groups like Samaritans—these are the people whom Jesus challenges his disciples not only to not overlook but to welcome as being just as beloved of God as we ourselves are. For it is that radical welcome and celebration of mutual dependence that is the foundation of the kingdom of God.

Do we welcome everyone, even those “little ones,” and appreciate them for who they are, or do we only pursue relationships that we think will be advantageous to us?

Do we place expectations on people that they just can’t meet, and when they don’t meet them, do we justify their expulsion or exclusion rather than examine our own hardness of heart?

Do we give of ourselves and what we value to build each other up, and to enable the building up of God’s kingdom?

Do we give of ourselves and what we value to witness to God’s abundance within our lives—abundant grace, abundant mercy, abundant love that calls us into being from the moment of our birth to beyond the end of our earthly lives?

For that is the witness of real welcome that communities of faith are called to do and embody in the world. And make no mistake—it is a radical statement against the abandonment and exploitation that is at the heart of the throw-away culture Jesus was criticizing then that still exists today. Our interdependence is a gift from God.

The kingdom of God is a generous kingdom of welcome and mutual dependence that demonstrates the love at the heart of relationship. It is this love and goodness that God imbedded in the very act of creation.

The kingdom of God tenderly recognizes the worth and value of our relationships with each other and with God as being foundational to who we all are, great or little, as beloveds in God’s sight.

Amen.

Preached at the 505 on October 6, and at 8:00 and 10:15 am on October 7, at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Ellisville, MO.

Readings:
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16


Notes/Sources:
I am indebted to Dr. Karoline Lewis's essay "Dependence Needs," September 22, 2015, at Dear Working Preacher, at http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=3697.

Images: 
1) Jesus and the Children, by Michael D. O'Brien.
2) Fieldstone "Giraffe House," so named because the random pattern of the fieldstone caulked with white resembles the markings of a giraffe.
3) "The Marriage of the Virgin," by Raphael, ca 1504.
4) Graph for the "Way of Love" from the Episcopal Church.
5) Stone Heart and Ezekiel quotation, unknown.
6) "Diversity."

Prayer 2080: Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost

Maker of the Universe,
Architect of Creation,
by your hand and wisdom you created us for communion,
to live in community with You and one another.
Engrave your covenant of love upon our hearts,
O God of Grace and Glory,
that we may celebrate our interdependence with all creation.
Help us live by the higher law of integrity and compassion,
welcoming the kingdom of God
by welcoming and treasuring the little ones among us.
By your healing hand, O Savior,
guide us into right pathways always,
that we may live as witnesses to your gospel
for all to see,
and in seeing, believe.
Holy One, You walk alongside us
in our need and in our joy:
shine the light of your peace
on those we now name.

Amen.

Prayer 2079

As the morning breezes murmur their praise,
harmonizing with branch and leaf,
let us rise to give thanks to our Creator.
Holy One, accept our prayers and praises
as we lift our hearts to You.

Beloved Savior, may we turn to you anew
as you call us to the abundant table of your fellowship;
may we be clothed by your gospel of justice
and work diligently
to lay the foundation of the Beloved Community.

Come, Holy Spirit, extend your light and truth,
that we may be enlightened and sanctified
to walk with integrity
and bear the gospel within our lives.
Lord Jesus, Shepherd of Our Souls,
enfold us within the embrace of your blessing,
and tenderly draw near to those for whom we pray.

Amen.

Prayer 2078: Confession and Lament

In silence and stillness,
we bow before you, O God.
In your compassion, O Merciful One,
accept our our prayers and intercessions
as we lay our cares and confessions at your feet.

We pray for our waywardness and hardness of heart
that blinds us to the wounds of others;
may we be pierced by the empathy that Jesus exemplifies
as we seek to work reconciliation in his name.

We pray that we may see that the little one in faith
whom we are called to welcome
may be the person who makes us uncomfortable;
may we examine our discomfort
as a call to growth.

May we denounce those who mock the torment of others,
who define suffering as justice,
or degrade the vulnerable;
for peace and honor cannot be built
on a foundation of pain.

We pray that we may have the courage to stand with the oppressed,
to overcome hatred and contempt
with love's power and goodness, Lord Christ.

By the power of the Holy Spirit,
stretch forth your healing hand over us,
and over all for whom we pray, O Savior.

Amen.

Prayer, day 2077: On the Feast of St. Francis

Our God and our All,
we place ourselves within the bounds of your peace,
and give You thanks for your lovingkindness.
Let your light shine in our hearts
like Brother Sun and Sister Moon and all the stars
 that we may walk in peace and joy.
You have placed our feet upon Mother Earth,
who sustains us and provides us our food:
may we honor and tend her in love.
As we pass through this day, your gift,
may we be gentle and forgiving to all,
praising You, O God,
in all that we are, do, and say.
Enlighten our minds,
that we may act from a perfect charity,
and sing forth your praises always.
You are love and peace, Lord Christ:
draw into your embrace
all those whom we remember before you as we pray.

Amen.

Prayer 2076

Most Merciful God,
we rise to greet this day You have made,
hearing the praise song of creation testify to your glory.
May we echo that praise in every moment,
from our rising to our resting,
and bear witness to your Love.
We thank You for your manifold blessings,
especially your fellowship of saints and companions
who guide us in wisdom.
Set our feet firmly
in the paths of peace and compassion,
O Holy One,
and help us to love unreservedly as Jesus taught us.
May your Spirit descend upon us like a cloud,
that our tongues may tell out your wonders, O Earth-maker.
God of Compassion,
bend near to all who seek You,
and envelop all who call upon You with hope.

Amen.

Photo: When we visited St. Lucia in 2013, I awoke in the hammock on the front porch of our cabin at Ti Kaye to find little birds all around me, which gave me a great sense of wonder and joy.

Prayer, day 2075: On the Beatitudes

O God, You bless us in every moment,
and uphold us by the strength of your Love:
hear our prayer, for our hope is in You. 

Bless those who work as your servants,
for they have fixed their hearts upon salvation in each moment.
Bless those who are gentle and kind,
for they draw others to You through their witness.
Bless those who hunger for a just society,
for they seek to build the kingdom of God.
Bless those who demonstrate mercy and forgiveness,
for they live out a life of Love and Charity.
Bless those who are innocent and childlike,
for their hearts are always open to You.
Bless those who spread peace in their wake,
for they call us to live as better people and children of your household.
Bless those who suffer for their faith,
for their resolve will never be shaken.
Bless those who cry out to You,
for they know that God will comfort them in their needs.

Amen.
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Prayer 2074

Almighty God, we give you thanks,
and rise to study your commandments,
remembering always your lovingkindness.
Make us kind, wise, and welcoming,
and lead us to open wide our hearts
and gather the little ones to you, Blessed Savior.
As a fisherman casts his net into the sea,
so let your gospel draw in all who seek you.
Bless us and keep us in your mercy, O Lord,
that we may ever seek to knit ourselves together in love.
Spread the wings of your protection, O Holy One,
over all who are in any need or trouble,
especially these beloveds for whom we pray.

Amen.