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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Celtic Prayer for the Morning

I  will kindle my fire this morning in the presence of the holy angels of heaven; Without malice, without jealousy, without envy, without fear; without terror of any one under the sun, but the Holy Son of God to shield me.

God, kindle thou in my heart within a flame of love to my neighbour, to my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all; To the brave, to the coward, to the man in the street, O Son of the loveliest Mary, from the lowliest thing that lives to the Name that is highest of all. In the name of Christ, I pray.

For Peace of Mind

Blessed Lord Jesus, I need you now because I am filled with stress and anxiety. But you have promised that if I read and remember your Word, and come to you in prayer, your Holy Spirit will come to me. I lay my burdens on you, precious Christ, as you have promised to take them. Please carry them for me so that I don't have to, for they overwhelm me. Replace my fears with your humble and gentle yoke, so that I will find rest for my soul today. Let me feel your love.

I accept the peace of mind and quietness of heart, which you offer to all men as a gift. My praise and thanks that it is possible for me to lie down this evening in peace, and find the rest of sleep, by your gift. For with you, I have faith that I dwell in perfect safety. What should I fear, when you have promised to be with me for all time? I pray that I can find your perfect peace, by your Word and your promise, this day and every day, until I see you face to face.

Blessing

May God the Father bless us; may Christ take care of us; the Holy Ghost enlighten us all the days of our life. The Lord be our defender and keeper of body and soul, both now and for ever, to the ages of ages.

by Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, 958 A.D.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Psalm 90:1-2 (NKJV)

1 Corinthians 1:10-17 (ESV)

The Wise and the Foolish

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Notes on the Scripture

Paul’s message today recalls the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, the “beatitudes,” in which Christ urges his audience to start their search for God with humility. Unlike most fields of endeavor, finding God does not hinge upon how rich you are, how smart you are, how popular or “successful” you are. Nor, for that matter, do poverty, failure and stupidity guarantee one’s salvation. (As Tevye, the poor dairyman in Fiddler on the Roof, put it: “There’s no shame in being poor. But it’s no great honor, either!”)

t is not worldly success that comes between us and our relationship with God, but rather, out attachment to it. Paul calls this boasting, but we might also call it arrogance or egotism. It can blind us to the utterly obvious fact that we did not have a hand in creating ourselves. The sun, the water and soil that keep us alive, the air we breathe: none of this have we made. For us to brag about our achievements or intelligence is like the captain of the Titanic bragging about how fast he can sail.

Thus, Paul says, God chose what is weak and foolish to shame what is wise and strong. Christ was a simple carpenter and his disciples, by and large, poor working men and women. For those who have little other than the air they breathe, water to drink, and must witness God’s hand in raising food, see more clearly who it is that is keeping them alive.

Thus, God chose simple folk to bring salvation to the world, that we might understand that the successes or gifts of this life have no connection to our salvation, no standing in the eyes of God. He chose the weak to shame the strong, to show all that the attachment of a powerful person to his power was meaningless vanity.

A child will boast about his parents. So we should boast about our Father, for it is He who has done all these wonderful things. And, He loves us without question. Whatever we may own or accomplish is miniscule in comparison to His works, for we are one of His works, and anything we might do derives from God.

Giotto (c. 1295-1300) loved to paint Saint Francis and depicted him many times in the churches of Assisi. Here he shows St. Francis giving his cloak to a poor man.

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