Do you roll your eyes in frustration, Lord,
   when I pay no attention to you, to your truth,
      – not even to common sense?

Do you want to dope slap me, Lord,
   when I miss the better, right choice to make
     – staring me right in the face?

Do you ever turn and walk away
   when I, for the thousandth time,
      make the same foolish, stupid mistake?

No, Lord, you don’t…

Instead,
   you show me time and again
      the things I’ve failed to see,
   you look with compassion and mercy
      on me and all my folly,
   you always, freely, pardon my sins
      and grant me a new beginning…
Patient, kind and compassionate Lord,
   be gracious to me today – as you always are –
      and help me grow in your grace…

Amen. 

 

Fr. Austin Fleming, Roman Catholic Priest in Massachusetts

 

___________________________

 

 

But all they gave him was lip service;
    they lied to him with their tongues.
Their hearts were not loyal to him.
    They did not keep his covenant.
Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins
    and did not destroy them all.
Many times he held back his anger
    and did not unleash his fury!
For he remembered that they were merely mortal,
    gone like a breath of wind that never returns.