Author: Eric Mathews

enlighten us to see the beam

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Parable of the Mote and the Beam, Domenico Fetti, via Wikimedia Commons

 
Lord, enlighten us to see the beam that is in our own eye,
    and blind us to the mote that is in our brother’s.  
Let us feel our offences with our hands,
    make them great and bright before us like the sun,
    make us eat them and drink them for our diet.  
Blind us to the offences of our beloved,
    cleanse them from our memories,
    take them out of our mouths forever.  
Help us at the same time with the grace of courage,
    that none of us be cast down when we sit lamenting
    amid the ruins of our happiness or our integrity:
Touch us with fire from the altar,
    that we may be up and doing to rebuild our city.

Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894, Scottish Novelist, published by his wife
The HarperCollins Book of Prayers


Matthew 7:3-4

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, 
    but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 
Or how can you say to your brother, 
    ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ 
     when there is the log in your own eye? 

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wash me with your tears

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Jesus Wept by Daniel Bonnell
 
Lord, we show you our wounds so that you may heal us.
And even if we do not, you know,
    and you wait to hear our voice.
Do away our scars by tears,
    like the woman in the gospel who washed your feet with hers.
 
You know how to help the weak,
    when there is no one who can prepare the feast,
    or bring the ointment,
    or carry along a spring of living water.
You come yourself to the grave.
 
So come to this grave of mine, Lord Jesus,
    that you would wash me with your tears.
With my dry eyes I have no such tears
    as to be able to wash away my offenses.
With your tears I will be saved, if I am worthy of your tears.
 
With them you will call me out of the tomb of this body and say, 
    “Come forth.”
Then my thoughts will not be kept pent up
    in the narrow limits of this body,
    but may go forth to you, and move to the light,
    that I may think no more on the works of darkness,
    but on the works of light.
 
Ambrose of Milan, c.339-397, Bishop of Milan
 
___________________________
 
 
When Jesus saw her weeping,
    and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping,
    he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
“Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
 
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, 
    “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out, 
    his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, 
    and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, 
    “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

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Give us the grace to admit . . .

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Lord Jesus, we are silly sheep who have dared to stand before you
    and try to bribe you with our preposterous portfolios.
Suddenly we have come to our senses.
We are sorry and ask you to forgive us.
Give us the grace to admit we are ragamuffins,
   to embrace our brokenness,
   to celebrate your mercy 
        when we are at our weakest,
    to rely on your mercy no matter what we may do.
Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention,
    to do the truth quietly without display,
    to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away,
    to accept our limitations,
    to cling to the gospel of grace,
    and to delight in your love.
 
Brennan Manning, 1934-2013, American author, laicized priest, and speaker
 
____________________________
 
 
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. 
There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
 

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I fly to you for refuge

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photo by jonathan emili via pexels.com
 
 
I fly to you for refuge, blessed Christ, my only redeemer and savior.
My sins are certainly great.
But greater still is the payment you have made for them.
 
Great is my unrighteousness, but greater by far is your righteousness.
I admit my sin.
Please, in your grace, would you pay its penalty?
I reveal the sin, in your mercy conceal it.
With remorse I uncover it; please hide it, in your grace.
 
There is nothing in me but sin that deserves your condemnation.
But in you there is nothing but grace that gives me a blessed hope of salvation.
 
I hear a voice in scripture which tells me to hide in the clefts of the rock.
You are the rock that cannot be moved, and your wounds are those clefts.
In them I will hide from the accusations of the world.
 
My sins cry aloud to heaven for vengeance,
    but still more loudly cries out your blood shed for my sins.
 
My sins accuse me before God, 
    but your suffering is mightier for my defense.
My horribly wicked life calls for my condemnation,
    but your holy and righteous life pleads more powerfully still for my salvation.
I appeal from the throne of your justice to the throne of your mercy.
I have no desire to come before your judgment –
    unless your holy merit intervenes between me and your sentence.
 
Have mercy on us, only God of mercy,
    and turn our stony hearts to you! Amen!
 
Johann Gerhard, 1582 – 1637, Lutheran church leader and theologian
 
___________________________
 
 
Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My victory and honor come from God alone.
    He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
O my people, trust in him at all times.
    Pour out your heart to him,
    for God is our refuge. 

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to sweep out the corners

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image by Louis Henri de Fontenay
 
 
God, we come
with hesitant steps
and uncertain motives
to sweep out the corners
where sin has accumulated,
and uncover the ways
we have strayed from Your truth.
 
Expose the empty and barren places
where we don’t allow you to enter.
Reveal our half-hearted struggles
where we have been indifferent
to the suffering of others.
 
Nurture the faint stirrings of new life,
where your spirit has begun to grow.
Let your healing light transform us
into the image of Your Son.
For You alone can bring new life
and make us whole.
 
Christine Sine, Australian physician and contemplative activist
 
_______________________________
 
 
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

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prayer before the prayer

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Desmond M. Tutu CC BY 2.0
 
 
I want to be willing to let go, to forgive.
but dare not ask for the will to forgive,
    in case you give it to me
    and I am not yet ready.
I am not yet ready for my heart to soften.
I am not yet ready to be vulnerable again.
Not yet ready to see that there is humanity in my tormentor’s eyes
    or that the one who hurt me may also have cried.
I am not yet ready for the journey.
I am not yet interested in the path.
I am at the prayer before the prayer of forgiveness.

Grant me the will to want to forgive.
Grant it to me not yet but soon
Can I even form the words?
Forgive me? Dare I even look?
Do I dare to see the hurt I have caused:
I can glimpse all the shattered pieces of that fragile thing
    that soul trying to rise on the broken wings of hope.
But only out of the corner of my eye.
I am afraid of it.
And if I am afraid to see
How can I not be afraid to say: Forgive me?

Is there a place where we can meet?
You and me
The place in the middle where we straddle the lines
Where you are right and I am right too.
And both of us are wrong and wronged.
Can we meet there?
And look for the place where the path begins
The path that ends when we forgive.
 
Desmond Tutu, 1931 – 2021 & Mpho Tutu, 1963- South African Anglican priests,
 
___________________________
 
 
Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, 
    you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, 
    kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 
Make allowance for each other’s faults, 
    and forgive anyone who offends you. 
Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
 

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teach us to love what you have created

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Our Father, God, Creator of all your different children,
    teach us to love what you have created.
Teach us to see people one by one
    and to acknowledge them as our Father’s children,
    our brothers and sisters:
  not to pigeonhole them;
    not to hammer them into unnatural molds of our own making,
  but to rejoice in our differences,
    accepting people as they are
    – different but of equal worth –
    each one a part of God’s creation,
    showing something of his love and glory.
 
Sybil Phoenix, 1927-, Guyanese born British community worker
 
___________________________________________
 
 
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement 
    give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 
    so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify 
        the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, 
    in order to bring praise to God.
 

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Open unto me

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Open unto me, light for my darkness
Open unto me, courage for my fear
Open unto me, hope for my despair
Open unto me, peace for my turmoil
Open unto me, joy for my sorrow
Open unto me, strength for my weakness
Open unto me, wisdom for my confusion
Open unto me, forgiveness for my sins
Open unto me, tenderness for my toughness
Open unto me, love for my hates
Open unto me, Thy Self for myself
Lord, Lord, open unto me!

Howard Thurman, 1899-1981, American author, educator and civil rights leader
___________________________________
 
 
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
   the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
    he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
 

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challenging the powers

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Christ Preaching, called La Petite Tombe, Rembrandt, via Wikimedia commons
 
 
Vulnerable God,
    you challenge the powers that rule this world
    through the needy, the compassionate,
    and those who are filled with longing.
 
Make us hunger and thirst to see right prevail,
    and single-minded in seeking peace;
    that we may see your face
    and be satisfied with you,
  through Jesus Christ.
 
Janet Morely British author, poet, and Christian feminist
 
___________________________
 
 
Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

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Grace to interpret the Scriptures

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We implore you, Father of the only-begotten, 
    Lord of the universe,
        the one who has crafted all creatures,
        the maker of things that have been made.
 
We stretch out clean hands, 
    and we unfold our thoughts to you, Lord.
Have compassion, spare, benefit, improve and multiply us 
    in virtue, faith and knowledge.
 
Visit us, O Lord.
We display our own weaknesses to you.
Have mercy and pity on us all.
Lift up this people, and make us gentle and sober-minded.
Cleanse us and set us apart to worship you rightly.
 
Send your Holy Spirit into our minds
    and give us grace to learn the Scriptures
    and to properly interpret their meaning,
        that others may be encouraged 
  through your only-begotten Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit,
    through whom and to you be glory and strength
    both now and to all the ages of the ages, Amen.
 
Serapion Scholasticus, 300-360, Egyptian Monk and Bishop
 
__________________________________
 
 
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

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