New Testament

Let us grow with him

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The Nativity, Federico Barocci 1597, wikimedia commons
 
 
O food and bread of angels,
   the angels are filled by you, are satisfied by you,
   but not to the point of satiety.
They live by you; they have wisdom by you.
By you they are blessed.

Where are you for my sake? In a mean lodging, in a manger.
For whom? He who rules the stars sucks at the breast.
He who speaks in the bosom of the Father is silent in the Mother’s lap.
But he will speak when he reaches a suitable age,
   and will fulfill for us the Gospel.
For our sakes he will suffer, for us he will die.
As an example of our reward, he will rise again.
He will ascend into Heaven before the eyes of his disciples,
   and will come from Heaven to judge the world.

Behold him lying in the manger; he is reduced to tininess,
   yet he has not lost anything of himself.
He has accepted what was not his,
   but he remains what he was.
Look, we have the infant Christ; let us grow with him.

Augustine of Hippo 354-430
Praying to Our Lord Jesus Christ
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Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God 
    something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.
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How is it that Jesus could be fully God even as he was a tiny baby?
How is Jesus’ birth the beginning of the Gospel fulfillment?

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Let the Word be conceived in me

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The Annunciation, Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898, via Wikimedia Commons
 
​Let the Word, I pray, be to me,
   not as a word spoken only to pass away,
   but conceived and clothed in flesh, not in air,
   that he may remain with us.
Let him be, not only heard with the ears,
   but to be seen with the eyes,
   touched by the hands and borne on the shoulders.
Let the Word be to me,
   not as a word written and silent,
   but incarnate and living.
That is, not traced with dead signs upon dead parchments
   but living impressed in human form
   upon my chaste womb;
   not by the tracing of a pen of lifeless reed,
   but by the operation of the Holy Spirit.
Let it thus be to me,
   as was never done to anyone before me,
   not after me shall be done.

Bernard of Clairvaux 1090-1153 French Benedictine abbot
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1 John 1:1-2

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
    which we have seen with our eyes,
    which we have looked at and our hands have touched—
    this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it,
    and we proclaim to you the eternal life,
    which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
 
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When has the presence of Jesus been offered to you?
When have you offered the presence of Jesus to someone else?

We come to pray for ourselves…

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Photo by Chris Zhang on Unsplash

God of our times, our years, our days.
  You are the God of our work,
        of our rest,
        of our weariness.
Our times are in your hands. We come to you now
    in our strength and in our weakness,
    in our hope and in our despair,
    in our buoyancy and in our disease.
We come to pray for ourselves and for all like us
    who seek and yearn for life anew with you and from you
        and for you.

We pray to you this day, for ourselves and others like us in our greed
  We are among those who want more,
        more money, more power, more piety, more sex,
        more influence, more doctrine, more notice,
        more members,
        more students, more morality, more learning, more shoes.
  Be for us enough and more than enough,
    for we know about your self-giving generosity.

We pray to you this day; for ourselves and others like us
        in our disconsolation.
  We are not far removed from those without.
        without love. without home, without hope,
        without job, without health care.
  We are close enough to vision those who must
        check discarded butts to see if there is one more puff,
        who must rummage and scavenge for food.
        for their hungers are close to ours.
  Be among us the God who fills the hungry with good things,
        and sends the rich away empty.

We pray to you this day, for ourselves and others like us
    who are genuinely good people,
    who meditate on your Torah day and night.
    who are propelled by and for your best causes.
    who are on the right side of every issue,
    who wear ourselves out in obedience to you,
        and sometimes wear others out with our good intentions.
Be among us ultimate enough
        to make our passions penultimate,
        valid but less than crucial.
 
We are your people. We wait for you to be more visibly
    and palpably our God.
So we pray with our mothers and fathers, ” Come, Lord Jesus.”
We wait for your coming with all the graciousness we can muster.
Amen.
 
Walter Brueggemann, 1933 – 2025,  American Protestant Old Testament theologian 
 
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Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, 
    that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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Jesus, you are stronger

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O Lord Jesus Christ,
There is so much to drag us back:
    empty pursuits, trivial pleasures, unworthy cares.
There is so much to frighten us away:
    a pride too cowardly to submit to being helped,
    cowardly apprehensiveness which evades danger
        to its own destruction,
    anguish for sin which shuns holy cleansing
        as a disease shuns medicine.
 
But You are stronger than these.
    so draw us now more strongly to Yourself.
We call You our Savior and Redeemer,
    since You came to earth to redeem us 
    from the slavery from which we were bound
    or had bound ourselves.
 
This is Your work,
    which You completed,
    and which you will continue to complete
    until the end of the world;
for since You Yourself have said it,
     therefore You will do it –
lifted up from earth, You will draw all unto Yourself.
 
Søren Kierkegaard, 1813 – 1855, Danish philosopher and theologian
from The Prayers of Kierkgaard, freely modified
 
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But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, 
    not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. 
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 
    whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior

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protect my heart

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image by Annija U via Pexels
 
I give you my heart, 
    and I humbly pray that you would always keep it in your hands,
    since it is so unfaithful in loving what is good.
When it is in my control, 
    it is prone to follow all sorts of evils.
Oh Father, 
    keep my heart steadfast and unalterable in your ways.
Let it not be inclined to any evil thing 
    nor lean toward any of my former vanities.
Keep my eyes from looking upon and my ears from listening
    to any sort of wickedness.
Do not let my lips utter anything that is ungodly 
    or my feet move even a step in any of the paths of death,
    but hold my whole spirit, soul, and body in a righteous fear of you.
Keep me comfortable in the hope of your favor,
    through Jesus Christ, my blessed Lord and only Savior.
Amen.
 
John Kettlewell, 1653-1695, English clergyman and devotional writer
 
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May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. 
May your whole spirit, soul and body 
    be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

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receiving with humility

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photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA via Pexels

 
What do we have heavenly Father,
    that we have not received from you?
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
    coming down from the Father of lights.
And because everything we have is yours 
    – whether for body or soul –
    how can we be proud, boasting about things 
    that are not even our own?
And as you give, so you are also able to take away again.
And you will, when your gifts are abused, won’t you?
If we fail to acknowledge that you are the giver?
 
So take away all my arrogance and pride.
Instead, graft in true humility, 
    so I may know that you are the giver of all good things,
    and be thankful for them,
    and use them for your glory and the good of my neighbor.
Grant also that I may not glory in earthly creatures,
    but in you alone.
You bring mercy, equity, and righteousness on earth,
    and to you alone be all glory, amen.
 
Thomas Becon, 1511–1567, English Protestant reformer Norfolk
 
______________________________
 
 
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, 
    coming down from the Father of lights, 
    with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change

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God’s rescue operation and new creation

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image by geralt via pixabay

 
Lord, we dream about justice.
We glimpse for a moment, 
    a world at one, a world put to rights, a world where things work out, 
    where societies function fairly and efficiently,
    where we not only know what we ought to do but actually do it.
And then we wake up and come back to reality.
 
…from the very beginning, two thousand years ago,
we the followers of Jesus have always maintained that
 
You took the tears of the world and made them Your own,
    carrying them all the way to Your cruel and unjust death
    to carry out God’s rescue operation,
and that You took the joy of the world and brought it to new birth
    as You rose from the dead and thereby launched God’s new creation.
 
N.T. Wright, 1948-, British New Testament Scholar, retired bishop
 
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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: 
The old has gone, the new is here!  
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ 
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 
    that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, 
    not counting people’s sins against them. 
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
 

Jesus, fight for me against Satan

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Lord Jehovah,
judge my cause and fight for me against Satan and his host.
Lay the strong one low!
 
I have cast off his yoke, and renounced his cursed power.
He doubly hates this, and longs to seize me as his prey.
 
I flee to you and to your cross for help.
He would win if you did not deliver me – but you have already defeated him.
 
Do not let him conquer me! Put him to shame, O Lord my God! 
Give me victory!
 
It is not strength that wins; my weakness is my shield.
In lowly trust we fight the fight, and weakness wins the battle.
 
So give me a lowly heart, and cast away each prideful thought.
Let gentleness and love come in instead, and abide in my life.
 
Your will, not mine, be done. I resist my selfish desires.
Let me ever and always be your servant only.
 
Jesus, I flee to you. I cling to your cross.
Save me from Satan’s hellish power and pluck me from his grasp.
 
So I will praise you, Lord, and adore your great name.
With Father and Spirit one, forever and ever, amen.
 
Ephrem the Syrian, c.306-373, Syrian hymn writer and theologian
 
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Be sober-minded; be watchful. 
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering 
   are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, 
    who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, 
    will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 
To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
 

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may the Holy Spirit work in the Church today

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Heavenly Father, in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
    we want to thank you for the Church which is your own creation.
We want to thank you for the way you have enabled your servants,
    by the power of the Holy Spirit, 
    to propagate your Gospel throughout the world.
We thank you for the zeal that you implanted 
    in the hearts of those early missionaries
    who brought the good news to foreign lands like Africa.
It is our prayer, Almighty God, 
    that the power of the Holy Spirit may work in the Church today, 
    that the hearts of the people may grow from strength to strength,
    that they may be able to withstand the obstacles that come their way
    in their endeavors to make your word reach all corners of the world.
Revitalize your Church and let your presence 
    be with all who are called by your holy Name.
Help each of us to live according to your will 
    so that your glory may be found in your Church.
Let everyone in the Church have zeal to exalt your Name.
 
Prayers Encircling the World, slightly modified
 
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So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria 
    had peace and was being built up. 
And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, 
    it multiplied.
 

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shepherd to the shepherds, help us

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The Good Shepherd, 3rd Century Roman Catacombs
 
 
God of peace, 
    who has restored us to each other, 
    and made the two one:
  You who set kings upon thrones, 
    who raise the poor out of the dust, 
    and lift up the beggar from the dung hill.
  You who chose David and took him away from the sheepfold,
    though he was the least and the youngest of the sons of Jesse.
  You who gave the word to those who preach the gospel
    with great power for the perfection of the gospel.
Hold me by my right hand, 
    guide me with your counsel,
    and receive me with glory.
You who are a shepherd to the shepherds and a guide to the guides,
    help us to feed your flock with knowledge,
    not with the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
Help us to serve according to the blessing,
    and not according to the curse 
      pronounced against the men of former days.
Give strength and power to your people.
Present your flock dazzling and spotless, worthy of the fold on high,
    in the place of rejoicing and in the splendor of the saints.
Do this so that in your temple everyone,
    both flock and shepherds, together may say:
Glory in Christ Jesus our Lord, 
    to whom be all glory forever and ever!
Amen.
 
Gregory Nazianzen, 329-389, Archbishop of Constantinople
 
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So I exhort the elders among you, 
    as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, 
    as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 
 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, 
    exercising oversight, not under compulsion, 
    but willingly, as God would have you;
  not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 
  not domineering over those in your charge, 
    but being examples to the flock. 
And when the chief Shepherd appears, 
    you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

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