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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.

"For Each New Morning"

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
I thank thee.
(From a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Prayer for Freedom from Fear

O Lord, I beseech you to deliver me, and all of your children, from the fear of the unknown future; from fear of failure; from fear of poverty; from fear of bereavement; from fear of loneliness; from fear of sickness and pain; from fear of age; from fear of death. Help us, O Father, by your grace to love and fear only you, and fill our hearts with cheerful courage and loving trust in you; through our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.

A Prayer of Contrition for Lent

Merciful Father, I am guilty of sin. I confess my sins before you and I am sorry for them. Your promises are just; therefore I trust that you will forgive my sins and cleanse me from every stain of sin. Jesus himself is the propitiation for my sins and the sin of the whole world. I put my hope in his atonement. May my sins be forgiven through His name and in His blood may my soul be made clean.

Irish Blessing

Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.

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 59:9-10 (ESV)

John 13:1-11 (NASB)

The Lord's Supper

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.

Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter."

Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head."

Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean."

Notes on the Scripture

Yesterday, Christ told his followers that he had not come to judge the world, but to save it. Here, he demonstrates physically that his mission is one of love rather than one of judgment. God has humbled himself to be born into the world; and now Christ humbles himself, out of love, to wash the feet of Peter.

In washing Peter's feet, Jesus cleans him. Notice how this is both similar to baptism, and the opposite of it. When John the Baptist baptized Christ (and when many denominations baptize members), the symbolic cleansing water was poured onto the top of his head. This was a spiritual cleansing. It was a symbol of the Holy Spirit entering the soul.

But Christ washes the feet, saying "he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet". Peter has already been baptized. He is completely clean, except for the dust of the road he has picked up by leading his daily life. Just so, we are spiritually "cleaned" when we are baptized. The only need is to remove the soil we have collected during the day. That is, to confess our recent sins.

The head always symbolized the mind or the soul, and the feet always emphasize the most humble nature of our bodies. But no matter how clean we have become, our bodies — our feet — become contaminated by our sin — the "dirt" of daily life. To become fully clean, i.e. sinless, we have only to say our daily prayers and ask for forgiveness. Christ will then "wash our feet" by shriving us of the sins we have committed during the day.

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