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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.

Sunday Prayer to Christ

Oh Christ, you are continually worshiped in heaven and on earth, in all times and at all hours; you are patience, compassion and mercy; you love the righteous, you have mercy on sinners, and you call all men to salvation, promising them all things to come.

Receive my prayers, this Sunday, as I celebrate Your resurrection; make my life conform to your will; sanctify my soul and body, order my thoughts, and give me victory in all trials and sadness, both today and in the week to come; protect me and bless me, and all of those who worship you this day, so that we may come to unity of faith and knowledge of your glory. For you live and reign, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God now and forever,

Taize Community, Midday Office 9/4/2014

For Forgiveness

Almighty Father; I enter your presence confessing the things I try to conceal from you and the things I try to conceal from others. I confess the heartbreak, worry, and sorrow I have caused, that make it difficult for others to forgive me; the times I have made it easy for others to do wrong; and the harm I have done that makes it hard for me to forgive myself. Lord have mercy on me, and forgive me for all my sins against you and against others. And teach the grace to forgive others to all who ask for it, through the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

Paul E. Engle

For Eternal Life

O  Merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life, so that whoever lives and believes in Him will not die eternally, but have everlasting life. You have taught us, by the holy Apostle Paul, not to be sorry, as men without hope, for those who sleep in Him, but to hope instead for your promise of eternity.

I humbly beseech you, O Father, to raise me and all who confess your holy name, from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we depart this life, we may rest in Him; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in your sight. I pray that you will give us that blessing, which your well-beloved Son will then pronounce to all who love and fear you, saying, Come, you blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Grant this, I beseech you, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer.

BCP 1928, as revised, Mason Barge, 2013

Dedication

Let me not forget you as I go forth into the world this day, blessed Lord; may my every word be a prayer, and my every act be testimony to your love and truth, and may I know your presence every second of this day and the week to come.

Mason Barge 3/17/14

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 76:11-12 (NKJV)

Job 2:7-10 (ESV)

o Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil [or disaster]?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Notes on the Scripture

God’s Blessings

Job’s wife voices a reaction that we hear countless times. The atheist or agnostic might say, “There cannot be a God, else He would not allow this to happen.” A believer, whose faith fails the test of a tragedy, might even curse God, as Job’s wife wanted him do.

But they are actually not saying anything about God; rather, they are talking about an unsupportable attitude of entitlement within themselves.

Everything we have is a gift from God. Our very existence is a gift. Did we give ourselves life through our hard work, our intelligence and power? The elements of our sustenance are given to us for free. With saw and hammer, we may build ourselves a house of wood, but still: did we make the tree from which we get our wood, or the sun and water and soil that sustain it?

A gift, by its nature, is something we are given that we are not entitled to. It is something we have not earned and do not “deserve.” And none of us was entitled to be born; we did nothing to earn our birth or all of the blessings that come with it.

By what right, then, having received countless blessings (including life itself), shall we complain that we deserve even more?

It is truly one of the hardest things we learn as Christians, to count our blessings and thank God for them, even when life has dealt us a miserable blow. It is helpful, when we are in pain, to remember the two most basic truths. First, that our very life is a gift. We should not ask, why is our life not better, but rather, why were we so lucky as to be born at all. If we have lost a child, it is foolish to curse God for taking her; the years we had her were a gift, and we must be thankful for them, rather than angry that they did not last longer.

Second, we must remember that if we use our gift wisely, we will receive an even greater gift, a life free of pain that will never know death. Unlike our birth, this is a promise that God has made to us.

Daily Inspiration

“Worship: Omit the Third Verse”

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