Lent post 6

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To be present is to arrive as one is and open up to the other. At this instant, as I arrive here, God is present waiting for me. God always arrives before me, desiring to connect with me even more than my most intimate friend. I take a moment and greet my loving God.

+ Sacred Space; The Presence of God

scripture

Old Testament: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Psalm: Psalm 22

New Testament: Philippians 2:5-11

Gospel: Luke 19:28-40

reflection

Holy Week is the church's great celebration of life in all its dimensions: communion with others in the Spirit, the call to suffer if necessary for the sake of the gospel, the sometimes loneliness of total commitment and the glory of living in the Christ, whatever the cost. It is a week to recall your own cost of living the Christian life and drawing strength for the journey from the One who has lived it before us and now fills us with His own eternal life.

+ Joan Chittister, OSB

O God, the deathless hope of everyone, we rejoice that you support us both when young and even to old age. When our strength comes from you, it is strength indeed; but when our own strength is all we have, it is feebleness. You give refreshment and true strength.

+ Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

Where am I with God? With others?

Do I have something to be grateful for? Then I give thanks.

Is there something I am sorry for? Then I ask forgiveness.

+ Sacred Space; Consciousness

Dear Lord, your disciple Peter wanted to know who would betray you. You pointed to Judas but a little later also to him. Judas betrayed, Peter dined you. Judas hanged himself, Peter became the apostle whom you made the first among equals. Lord, give me faith, faith in your endless mercy, your boundless forgiveness, your unfathomable goodness. Let me not be tempted to think that my sins are too great to be forgiven, too abominable to be touched by your mercy. Let me never run away from you but return to you again and again, asking you to be my Lord, my Shepherd, my Stronghold, and my Refuge. Take me under your wing, O Lord, and let me know that you do not reject me as long as I keep asking you to forgive me. Perhaps my doubt in your forgiveness is a greater sin than the sins I consider too great to be forgiven. Perhaps I make myself too important, too great when I think that I cannot be embraced by you anymore. Lord, look at me, accept my prayer as you accepted Peter's prayer, and let me not run away from you in the night as Judas did.

Bless me, Lord, in this Holy Week, and give me the grace to know your loving presence more intimately. Amen.

+ Henri Nouwen

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Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen

+ Book of Common Prayer

*community prayer, worship & bible study tonight at 6:50pm. (4/20)

**Good Friday gathering at 7pm (4/22)

***Easter celebrations at 9am, 10:15am, 11:30am (4/24)

Lent post 5

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I reflect for a moment on God's presence around me and in me. Creator of the universe, the sun and the moon, the earth, every molecule, ever atom, everything that is: God is in every beat of my heart. God is with me, now.

+ Irish Jesuit Prayer; Sacred Space

scripture

Old Testament: Isaiah 58:1-12

Psalm: Psalm 130

New Testament: Romans 8:6-11

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-21

reflection

O God, you are not far from any of us,

since it is in you that we live,

and move, and exist.

You, who have overlooked the times of ignorance,

let everyone everywhere be told

that they must now repent.

+ after Acts 17:27-28, 30; Henri Nouwen

"Christians throughout history have fasted in preparation for the Lord's Supper. In addition to the elements of repentance and humility before God in this kind of fast, it is also intended to help the person focus on adoring the One who is represented in the Supper."

+ Donald S. Whitney

"In adoration we enter the rarefied air of selfless devotion. We ask for nothing but to cherish God. We seek nothing but his exaltation. We focus on nothing but his goodness. 'In the prayer of adoration we love God for himself, for his very being, for his radiant joy.'"

+ Richard Foster; Prayer

God in my living, there in my breathing

God in my waking, God in my sleeping

God in my resting, there in my working

God in my thinking, God in my speaking

Be my everything, be my everything

Be my everything, be my everything

Christ in me, Christ in me

Christ in me the hope of glory, You are everything

+ Tim Hughes; Everything

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O God, make clear to us each road.

O God, make safe to us each steep;

when we stumble, hold us;

when we fall, lift us up.

When we are hard-pressed with evil,

deliver us;

and bring us at last to your glory.

+ Celtic Daily Prayer

*community prayer, worship, and Bible study tonight at 6:50pm (wednesday 4/13)

lent post 4

open

I pause for a moment

and think of the love and the grace that God showers on me,

creating me in his image and likeness, making me his temple.

+ Irish Jesuit Prayer; Sacred Space

My soul waits for the Lord

more than those

who watch for the morning

more than those

who watch for the morning

Out of the depths I have cried to You.

O Lord, hear my voice.

With my whole heart I want to praise You.

O Lord, hear my voice.

If you, Lord, should mark iniquities:

Who could stand? Who could stand?

I will wait for the Lord.

My soul waits,

and in His word

do I hope.

+ Celtic Daily Prayer

+ The Crucified Christ; Fra Angelico (1395-1455)

scripture

Old Testament: Numbers 21:4-9

Psalm: Psalm 32

New Testament: Ephesians 2:1-10

Gospel: John 3:14-21

reflection

Forgive me, most gracious Lord and Father, if this day I have done or said anything to increase the pain of the world. Pardon the unkind word, the impatient gesture, the hard and selfish deed, the failure to show sympathy and kindly help where I have had the opportunity, but missed it; and enable me so to live that I may daily do something to lessen the tide of human sorrow, and add to the sum of human happiness.

+ F.B. Meyer (1847-1929)

We need you, how we need you

we need you every hour

to see you in your glory

to know your Spirit's power.

There's healing in your presence

there's mercy where you are

so meet us, won't you meet us, Living God.

No other God but you, no other God but you

No other God can satisfy

You are our great reward

it's you we're longing for

no other God, but you, Most High

+ Brenton Brown, We Need You

Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him; and that through the grave and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection; for his merits, who died and was buried, and rose again for us, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

+ Book of Common Prayer

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Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

World without end. Amen.

+ Gloria Patri