Come closer to me, closer still, O Power of the Holy Trinity. Enter into my consciousness more deeply
than thoughts and emblems of the world can. In the same way as a wise mother, when she conceives, prepares and embellishes a cradle for her child, so prepare and embellish my mind for that which will be begotten from You, O Beauty and Purity.
Many evil thoughts lurk like serpents around the cradle of Your Son. And many wicked desires emerge from my heart and seek the cradle of Your Prince, to poison Him with their arrows.
Defend the cradle of my mind, and teach my soul how to give birth and care for an infant.
Shroud in deep darkness
the journey of all malevolent visitors coming to see my newborn son. And raise aloft a most radiant star
over the way of the Wise Men from the East, men who are truly wise,
because they are coming to visit my most precious child with three gifts— faith, hope, and love.
Come closer to me, still closer, my majestic Lord.
Nikolai Velimirovich 1881-1956 Serbian Orthodox monastic Prayers by the Lake, source, edited __________________________________
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
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Where is the darkest place that you have seen God move? What did God do?
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
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.
prayer & verse 
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