christianity

Jesus, fight for me against Satan

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
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
 
____________________________
 
 
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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open my hand

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
photo by Oladimeji Odunsi on Unsplash
 
 
You have called me to open my hand
    so that you can fill it.
 
But I would not open my hand.
I held the world tightly 
    and kept my hand shut.
I would not let it go.
 
But please God,
    open my hand for me.
And do not only open my hand, 
    but also open my mouth –
  and not only my mouth,
    but my heart also.
 
Grant that I may know nothing but you,
    that I may count everything as loss compared to you,
    and that I may strive to be conformed to you.
 
Jeremy Taylor, 1613-1667, English cleric, imprisoned during the Protectorate
 
__________________________
 
 
I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

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love for the Eternal Trinity

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The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena, Giovanni di Paolo, via Wikimedia Commons

 
O Eternal God! O Eternal Trinity!
Through the union of your divine nature you have made so precious
    the blood of your only begotten Son!
O eternal Trinity, you are as deep a mystery as the sea,
    in whom the more I seek, the more I find;
    and the more I find, the more I seek.
For even immersed in the depths of you,
    my soul is never satisfied, always famished and hungering for you,
    eternal Trinity, wishing and desiring to see you, the true light.
 
O eternal Trinity, with the light of understanding
    I have tasted and seen the depths of your mystery
                         and the beauty of your creation.
In seeing myself in you, I have seen that I will become like you.
 
O eternal Father, from your power and your wisdom
    clearly you have given me a share of that wisdom
    which belongs to your only begotten Son.
And truly the Holy Spirit,
    who proceeds from You, Father and Son,
    has given to me the desire to love You.
 
Catherine of Siena, 1347 – 1380, Italian Dominican mystic
 
____________________________
 
 
Hear me as I pray, O Lord.
    Be merciful and answer me!
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
    And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

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Father, give us all your Holy Spirit

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​Veni Sancte Spiritus, by Lawrence OP, via  Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 
Dear Heavenly Father, we ask you now to give us all your Holy Spirit,
    and to give him continually, that he might awaken, enlighten, encourage,
    and enable us to dare to take the small and large steps of moving 
    out of the comfort with which we can comfort each other 
    and into hope in you.
Turn us away towards you!
Do not allow us to hide from you!
Do not let us do anything without you!
Show us how glorious you are and how glorious it is to trust and obey you!
 
We would ask the same for all people,
    that nations and governments may bow to your Word,
      and that they will be willing to work for justice and peace on earth,
    that your Word may be understood and taken to heart
      by all those who are poor, sick, imprisoned, troubled, oppressed, and unbelieving;
    that through word and deed your Holy Spirit may be made known to them;
      and that you may be perceived by them as the answer to their sighs and cries;
    that all Christian churches and confessions may learn to recognize him anew 
      and serve you with renewed faithfulness;
    that your truth may remain bright in all of humanity’s error and confusion,
      until such a time as he shall ultimately enlighten all people and all things.
 
You are glorified, you who make us free in Jesus Christ, your Son,
    by confessing and standing on this: that our hope is in you. 
Amen.
 
Karl Barth, 1886 – 1968, Swiss Reformed theologian
Fifty Prayers, slightly modified
 
______________________________
 
 
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, 
    so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
 

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Spirit, breathe your story of truth into ours

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Geralt via Pixabay
 
Truth-telling, wind-blowing, life-giving spirit –
    we present ourselves now
        for our instruction and guidance;
    breathe your truth among us,
        breathe your truth of deep Friday loss,
            your truth of awesome Sunday joy.
 
Breath your story of death and life
    that our story may be submitted to your will for life.
We pray in the name of Jesus risen to new life –
        and him crucified.
 
Walter Brueggemann, 1933 -2025,  American Protestant Old Testament theologian
Prayers for a Privileged People
 
________________________________
 
 
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. 
He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, 
    and he will tell you what is yet to come. 
He will glorify me because it is from me
    that he will receive what he will make known to you. 
All that belongs to the Father is mine. 
That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.
 

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growing into the likeness

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
CompositeJesus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
Spirit of Truth, direct our attention to the life of Jesus
    so that we might see what you would have us be.
Make us, like him, teachers of your good law.
Make us, like him, performers of miraculous cures.
Make us, like him, proclaimers of your kingdom.
Make us, like him, loving the poor, the outcast, the children.
Make us, like him, silent when the world tempts us
    to respond in the world’s terms.
Make us, like him, ready to suffer.
 
We know we cannot be like Jesus
    except as Jesus was unlike us, being your Son.
Make us cherish that unlikeness,
    that we may grow into the likeness
    made possible by Jesus’ resurrection.
Amen
 
Stanley Hauerwas, 1940- , American ethicist and theologian
____________________
 
 
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. 
And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, 
    he will give life to your mortal bodies 
    by this same Spirit living within you.

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Good Shepherd of us all

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Lawrence OP via Flickr
 
Good Shepherd of us all,
I thank you today for all the good shepherds in my life
and for all the ways you’ve shepherded me
through their love, their watchful presence,
their devotion and protection…

I thank you for my parents, my first shepherds;
I thank you for their protection, for the shelter of their love,
and for all they sacrificed
to help me grow…

I thank you for other shepherds in my family
and for all my friends
who comfort and challenge me,
who dry my tears and make me laugh,
who walk faithfully close by my side…

I thank you for all the shepherds
who taught me in school,
who counseled and directed me,
who shaped me and helped me to become
the person I am today…

I thank you for shepherds
whose names I don’t know, who stand in harm’s way
’round my town and ’round the world,
standing guard all day long to keep me safe,
keeping vigil while I sleep without a worry…

I thank you Lord, for the shepherds who care
for the sick and dying sheep among us,
who bind up wounds,
who bring comfort to those in pain,
who speed the path to health
or ease the path to end of days…
I thank you for the shepherds you’ve called home,
especially those gone much too soon,
whose gentle shepherd’s crook I miss,
whose presence still abides within my heart…

I thank you for the shepherds, Lord,
who remember me in prayer,
lifting up my name and needs to you;
who keep me in the sheepfold of your grace,
you, my gentle Shepherd,
Good Shepherd of us all…
Amen.
 
Fr. Austin Fleming, Roman Catholic Priest in Massachusetts
 
______________________________
 
 
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 
 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—
and I lay down my life for the sheep.

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Prayer professing faith

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
painting by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1881 via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
God, Creator, you planned from the beginning –
    telling evil that the woman’s offspring would crush it.
You called to Abraham from his land on the margins to follow you. 
He and three more generations relied on you to live in a strange land. 
Later, you led the descendants of Israel out of Egypt, out of bondage. 
You led your people with judges like Deborah, 
    with kings like David whose family included migrants, 
    and with prophets like Daniel who lived as minorities in strange lands. 
In all these ways you remind us to focus our hope on your salvation 
    rather than in an earth-bound culture. 
And when it seemed that you were absent, you sent your Only Son.

Transgressing our sense of power, your Son was born as the baby of a virgin. 
Tempted in the ways we still are – riches, fame, and glory – 
    he chose a life of humble service, service to others even while he was betrayed. 
He drank the full cup of suffering. 
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice and tortured. 
Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make people holy through his own blood.

When he died, he crossed the border of hell. 
Three days later God raised him from the grave, exchanging death for life. 
He appeared to Mary, Mary Magdelen, Salome, and Joanna; 
    he walked with Celopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus 
    to those on the margins. 
Then he appeared to Peter and the twelve, 
Christ, raised from the dead, presents us with salvation.
 
complied by Claudio Carvalhaes, professor of worship in New York City
 
___________________________
 
 
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, 
    “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 
     and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations,
     beginning at Jerusalem.”
 

On shore

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Christ Appears on the Shore of Lake Tiberias – James Tissot via Wikimedia
Meal of Our Lord and the Apostles – James Tissot via Wikimedia
 
The blame forgotten,
shame covered,
Peter leapt into the sea.
Where tears once drowned hope
and denials became despair and self loathing,
his eyes had seen that figure on the shore,
that body once strung across the stained wood of execution.

A revived fishing business,
the dull depression of remembered cowardice,
of failed courage,
bad dreams of abandonment,
a deep sea of pain,
now splashed with new hope.

Peter would make it to the shore.

He is risen.
Peter is risen from the dead.
Three times denied.
Three times invited to love again
by him who three times prayed his own despair
and, three times mocked ‘mid three crosses,
in three days rose to resurrect Peter.

Peter made it to the shore.

Others made it to the shore.
They ate together,
a fellowship of grace and rehabilitation,
of forgiveness and hope,
a symbol of the persistence of divine love,
also for you and me.

 
William Loader, 1944- , Australian minister and professor
 
_____________________________________
 
 
Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.
It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), 
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.
“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” 
So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, 

    but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” 

When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” 

As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” 
    he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.
The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, 
    for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.
When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

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And now unto Him who is able

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
And now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling.
And now unto Him who is able to lift us from the fatigue of despair
    to the buoyancy of hope.
And now unto Him who is able to solve the race problem
    if we will cooperate with Him.
And now unto Him who is able to transform this cosmic energy
    into constructive force.
Now unto Him who is able to transform this midnight of injustice
    into a glowing daybreak of freedom and justice.
To Him be power and authority, majesty and dominion,
    now, henceforth, and forever more. Amen.
 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929 -1968, American pastor & civil rights leader
_____________________________________
 
 
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, 
    and to present you faultless 
    before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, 
    be glory and majesty, dominion and power, 
    both now and ever. Amen.

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