icon of Jesus and James, Nepoznati Ikonopisac, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
There is no person so near to us as you, Christ Jesus.
You are our father because we were created through you.
You are our brother because you took on our nature.
You are our father because you provided an inheritance for us.
You are our brother because you divided this inheritance with us.
And because you died to give us possession of that inheritance,
you are the Nourishing One, our foster father
who has nursed us in his house, in the Christian church.
You are our twin brother,
so similar to us that your Father is ours
and He will not know us from one another
but will mingle our conditions:
He finds our sins in you
and your righteousness in us.
after John Donne, 1572 – 1631, English poet, satirist, lawyer and priest
And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham.
You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
prayer & verse 
