family

my words can’t carry all the praise

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
The Thankful Poor, H.O. Tanner, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Glorious God,
how curious
    and what a confession
        that we should set aside one day a year
             and call it Thanksgiving.
I smile at the presumption,
    and hope you smile, too.
The the truth is,
    Holy Friend,
    that my words can’t carry all the praise
          I want them to,
              of that they should,
                  no matter how many trips they make.
So this day,
    all is praise and thanks
        for all my days.
 
I breathe and it is your breath that fills me.
    I look and it is your light by which I see.
        I move and it is your energy moving in me.
I listen and even stones speak of you.
    I touch and you are between finger and skin.
        I think and the thoughts are but sparks
             from the fire of your truth.
I love and the throb is your presence.
    I laugh and it is the rustle of your passing.
        I weep and your Spirit broods over me.
            I long and it is the tug of your kingdom.
 
I praise you, Glorious One,
for what has been, and is and will ever be:
for galaxy upon galaxy, mass and energy,
    earth and air, sun and night,
        sea and shore, mountain and valley,
            root and branch, male and female,
creature upon creature in a thousand ingenious ways,
    two-legged, hundred legged, smooth, furry, and feathery,
        bull-frogs and platypuses, peacocks and preachers,
and turkeys (especially the roasted kind)
    and families gathered, and the thanking;
        the brave, lonely one, and the asking;
            the growling, hungry ones, and the sharing.
 
O Glorious One,
for this curious day,
    for the impulses that have designated it,
        for the gifts that grace it,
            for the gladness that accompanies it,
for my life,
    for those through whom I came to be,
        for friends though whom I hear and see
            greater worlds than otherwise I would,
for all the doors of words and music and worship
    through which I pass to larger worlds,
        and for the One who brought a kingdom to me,
I pause to praise and thank you
    with this one more trip of words
        which leaves too much uncarried,
            but not unfelt,
                unlived,
                    unloved,
                        Thank you!
 
Ted Loder, 1930-2021, American Methodist minister
 
________________________
 
 
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

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prayer for young people

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

 
Father, we pray for young people growing up 
    in a difficult and dangerous world.
We pray for those who are unemployed,
    who have not worked since they left school and have never earned any money.
We pray for those who are taking their first steps in their skill, trade, or profession.
We pray for those who feel they have no support from the adults around them
    and who grow resentful at what they see to be their indifference.
We pray for those who are caught up in violence,
    either giving it or receiving it.
We pray for those who are morally confused and uncertain of what is right or wrong.
We pray for young Christians as they strive to live out their faith 
    in an unsympathetic world.
Father, you are head of all the family.
Hear our prayers in Jesus’ name.
 
Michael Walker, Baptist writer and lecturer
 
___________________________
 
 
You who are young, be happy while you are young,
    and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
    and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
    God will bring you into judgment.
So then, banish anxiety from your heart
    and cast off the troubles of your body,
    for youth and vigor are meaningless.
 

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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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Thanksgiving for Jesus

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
 
Eternal God, our heavenly Father,
From whom comes every good and perfect gift,
we thank and praise your name for all your mercies,
    and for every blessing we have received from you.
We praise you, God, for health and strength,
    for food and raiment,
    for shelter, friends, and family,
    for comfort in sorrow, deliverance from danger,
    strength in weakness, help in adversity,
    consolation in affliction.
For all the tokens of your faithfulness,
    and for all the proofs of your mercy and love, we praise you.
 
We give you thanks, O God, for your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
    No one in history compares with him.
He is the Good Shepherd –
    the One who has guided us each step of the way.
He is the Rock of Refuge –
    the One who has held us securely when all around was sinking.
He is the Bread of Life –
    the One who has satisfied our soul’s hunger.
He is the Light of the World –
    the One who has delivered us from spiritual darkness.
He is the Resurrection –
    the One who is our life and our life to come.
 
Wendell C. Hawley,  American pastor
 
____________________
 
 
And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. 
For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. 
And always be thankful.
Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. 
Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. 
Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, 
    giving thanks through him to God the Father.

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teach us the unity of Thy family

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
O God, who has made man in thine own likeness,
    And who loves all whom Thou hast made,
  suffer us not because of difference of race, color, or condition
    to separate ourselves from others
    and thereby from Thee;
  but teach us the unity of Thy family
    and universality of Thy Love.
As Thou Savior, as a Son, was born of a Hebrew mother,
    who had the blood of many nations in her veins;
    and ministered first to Thy brethren of the Israelites,
    but rejoiced in the faith of a Syro-Phoenician woman and of a Roman soldier,
    and suffered your cross to be carried by an Ethiopian;
  teach us, also, while loving and serving our own,
    to enter into the communion of the whole family;
  and forbid that from pride of birth, color, achievement and hardness of heart,
    we should despise any for who Christ died,
    or injure or grieve any in whom He lives.
We pray in Jesus’ precious name. AMEN.
 
Robert C. Lawson, 1883-1961, 20th-century African American clergyman
 
_______________________
 
 
I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters,
    by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
    to live in harmony with each other. 
Let there be no divisions in the church. 
Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

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prayer for scrubbing floors

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Cleaning Lady, Tomicmilos90, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Thank you for the privilege of scrubbing this floor.
Thank you for the health and the strength to do it.
That my back is straight and my hands are whole.
I can push a mop. 
I can feel the hard surface under my knees when I kneel.
I can grasp the brush and let my energy flow down into it
    as I erase this dirt and make this floor clean.
Lord, thank you for everything that has to do with scrubbing this floor.
Bless the soap and the bucket and the brush and the hands that do it.
Bless the feet that are running in right now to track it.
Those feet are the reason I do it.
That are the living reasons for my kneeling here
    – half to do a job, half in prayer.
A floor is a foundation. A family is a foundation.
You are our foundation.
Bless us all, and our newly scrubbed floor.
 
Marjorie Holmes, 1910–2002, American columnist and author
 
___________________________
 
 
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named
 

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blessings of home

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash
 
O God, bless those who have no homes.
Bless those who have to live away from home
  in lodgings and boarding-houses and hotels.
Bless those who have been left alone,
  and who are solitary now.
Bless those who are searching or waiting for a house.
Specially bless young couples who have to live in furnished rooms,
  or with relatives, and who have never had the chance
  to be alone together and to have a home of their own.
Bless those who keep house for other people,
  and who have no house of their own.
Bless old people who are coming to the end in some institution
  which is very comfortable but which is still not home.
Help us who have the blessing of a good home
  to keep an open heart and an open door
  to those less fortunate than ourselves.
This we ask for your love’s sake. Amen.

from the Audenshaw prayers, UK
 
___________________________
 
 
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, 
as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

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