humility

By your grace I mourn

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
La Confession,Marie Amélie Cogniet via Wikimedia commons
 
Preserve your work, Lord.
Guard the gift you have given even to those who pull back.
 
For I know I was not worthy to be called your servant,
   but by your grace I am what I am.
 
And grant that I may know how with genuine affection 
    to mourn with those who sin.
Grant that as often as I learn of the sin of anyone who has fallen,
    I may suffer with them,
    and not scold them in my pride,
    but mourn and weep with them,
    so that in weeping over another
I may also mourn for myself.
 
Ambrose of Milan, c.339-397, Bishop of Milan
Fount of Heaven Prayers of the Early Church
 
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Therefore confess your sins to each other 
    and pray for each other 
    so that you may be healed. 
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

so light that we walk on water

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Walking on Water, Ivan Aivazovsky via wikimedia commons
 
Lord Christ,
Help us to have the courage and humility to name our burdens
and lay them down
so that we are light to walk across the water
to where you beckon us. . . .

The memory of hurts and insults,
driving us to lash out,
to strike back
We name it
and we lay it down. . . .

Our antagonism against those
whose actions, differences, presence,
threaten our comfort or security
We name it
and we lay it down. . . .

We do not need these burdens,
but we have grown used to carrying them,
have forgotten what it is like to be light.

Beckon us to lightness of being,
for you show us it is not unbearable.
Only so we can close the distance.
Only so we can walk upon the water.
Blessed are you, Lord Christ, who makes heavy burdens light.

Kathy Galloway, Iona Community, Church of Scotland minister
The Complete Book of Christian Prayer

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Matthew 11:28-30 
 
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
   and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,
   for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
   and you will find rest for your souls.  
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

_____________________

Questions

When you’ve fully forgiven someone and let go of the offence, how did it feel?
How do you understand that the burden offered by Jesus is actually light?

My Ego is like a Fortress

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Photo by Margarida CSilva on Unsplash  

 
My ego is like a fortress.
I have built its walls stone by stone
To hold out the invasion of the love of God.
But I have stayed here long enough.  There is light
Over the barriers. O My God-
The darkness of my house forgive
And overtake my soul.
I relax the barriers.
I abandon all that I think I am,
All that I hope to be,
All that I believe I possess.
I let go of the past,
I withdraw my grasping hand from the future,
And in the great silence of this moment,
I alertly rest my soul.
As the sea gull lays in the wind current,
So I lay myself in the spirit of God.
My dearest human relationships,
My most precious dreams,
I surrender to His care.
All that I have called my own
I give back.  All my favorite things
Which I would withhold in my storehouse
From his fearful tyranny,
I let go.
I give myself
Unto Thee, O my God.
    Amen.

Howard Thurman, 1899-1981, African-American theologian civil rights leader
Say Amen! The African American Family’s Book of Prayers

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Psalm 51:17

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.

______________________
 
Questions:

When you project your own ego, what do you think it looks like to other people?    

To God?

Variation on the Jesus Prayer

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image via Pinterest​
 
Jesus.
Lord Jesus.
Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, have mercy.
Jesus, have mercy.

variation on the Jesus Prayer,
originated from the Desert Fathers, 5th century Egypt

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Luke 18:13 

But the tax collector stood at a distance.
He would not even look up to heaven,
but beat his breast and said,
‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

___________________

The word Mercy is from the Hebrew word Hesed
which describes a sense of love and loyalty
that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior toward another.

Question:

What are some ways that you have experienced
God’s mercy or hesed in your life?

Today I sing the song of Mary

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​The Virgin in Prayer, Albrecht Dürer, 1518, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Today I look into my own heart
and all around me, and I sing the song of Mary.

My life praises the Lord my God,
  who is setting me free.
He has remembered me, in my humiliation and distress!
From now on, those who rejected and ignored me
  will see me and call me happy,
  because of the great things he is doing
  in my humble life.
His name is completely different from the other names in this world;
  from one generation to another
  he was on the side of the oppressed.
As on the day of the Exodus, he is stretching out
  his mighty arm to scatter the oppressors
  with all their evil plans.
He has brought down mighty kings
  from their thrones
  and he has lifted up the despised;
  and so he will do today.
He has filled the exploited with good things,
And sent the exploiters away with empty hands;
  and so he will do today.
His promise to our mothers and fathers remains new and fresh to this day.
Therefore the hope for liberation
  which is burning in me
  will not be extinguished.
He will remember me, here now and beyond the grave.

Zephania Kameeta, 1945- , Namibian Lutheran minister and political leader
Bread of Tomorrow: Praying with the World’s Poor

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Luke 1:46-49

 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
 for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.”
 
_____________________________
 
How can you pray for God’s righteousness to reshape your neighborhood?

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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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Prayer professing faith

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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
 
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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.”
 

Glory to you who became lowly

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

The Nativity by Giotto © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro / CC BY-SA 4.0

 
What mere human can declare the glory of the All-Life-Giver,
    who stepped down from majesty
    and humbled himself to become humanity?
 
You who lifted up humanity in your birth,
    lift up my weak mind
    to declare your birth and proclaim your grace.
 
How amazing is it that the Son dwelled completely in a body,
    that it was enough for him.
Your will was fully contained,
    yet your bounds reached wholly to the Father.
Blessed be he who, though without bounds,
    was bound!
 
Who can explain how,
    though you dwelled wholly in a body,
    you also dwelled wholly in all?
 
Your majesty is concealed from us,
    while your grace is revealed before us.
I will be silent, O Lord of majesty,
    and I will tell of your grace.
Your grace clung to you, 
    while it bowed you down to our worst.
 
Your grace made you a baby,
    and your grace made you a man.
Your grace straightened and enlarged your majesty.
Blessed is the might that became little . . .  and became great!
 
Glory to you who became lowly, 
    though your nature is lofty.
By your own will you became man,
    though you are God by nature.
Blessed be the glory which put on our image!
 
Your hope brought new hope
    when ours had broken down.
Blessed be the one who brought good news of hope!
 
Double was the happiness 
    of those who saw your birth and your day,
 yet also happy are those who have not seen,
    but who have believed.
Blessed is your happiness that added to us!
 
Ephrem the Syrian, c.306-373, Syrian hymn writer and theologian
_____________________________
 
 
For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

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A final meditation

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Sir Thomas More, via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
Give me grace, good Lord
To count the world as nothing,
To set my mind firmly on you
And not to hang on what people say;
To be content to be alone,
Not to long for worldly company,
Little by little to throw off the world completely
And rid my mind of all its business;
Not to long to hear of any worldly things;
Gladly to be thinking of you,
Pitifully to call for your help,
To depend on your comfort,
Busily to work to love you;
To know my own worthlessness and wretchedness,
To humble and abase myself under your mighty hand,
To lament my past sins,
To suffer adversity patiently, to purge them,
Gladly to bear my purgatory here,
To be joyful for troubles,
To walk the narrow way that leads to life,
To bear the Cross with Christ,
To keep the final hour in mind,
To have always before my eyes my death,
    which is always at hand,
To make death no stranger to me,
To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell,
To pray for pardon before the judge comes;
To keep continually in mind the passion 
    that Christ suffered for me,
For his benefits unceasingly to give him thanks;
To buy back the time that I have wasted before,
To refrain from futile chatter,
To reject idle frivolity,
To cut out unnecessary entertainments,
To count the loss of worldly possessions ,
    friends, liberty and life itself as absolutely nothing,
    for the winning of Christ;
To consider my worst enemies my best friends,
For Joseph’s brothers could never have done him
    as much good with their love and favor
    as they did with their malice and hatred.
 
Thomas More, 1478-1535, English statesman, beheaded by Henry VIII
________________________
 
 
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. 
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 
Be wretched and mourn and weep. 
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
 

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Decorate our homes with your goodness

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Highland Hospitality, John Frederick Lewis, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Lord, we want to invite you into our homes.
So we decorate them with giving to the needy, with prayers, with requests,
    and with vigils that focus increasingly on the needs of others.
There are the decorations of Christ the King.
 
We are not ashamed then of having a humble house,
    if it has this kind of furniture.
 
But the decorations that come from unstoppable greed
    are the enemy of Christ.
May those of us who are rich not pride ourselves 
    on having an expensive home.
Rather let us hide our faces, turn away from greed,
    and seek the other kind of decoration.
 
In so doing let us receive Christ in this life on earth,
    and there enjoy the eternal home,
by the grace and love you have for us in Jesus Christ,
    to whom be glory and might, world without end, amen.
 
John Chrysostom, c.349-407, Archbishop of Constantinople
_____________________________
 
 
He said also to the man who had invited him, 
    “When you give a dinner or a banquet, 
        do not invite your friends or your brothers
         or your relatives or rich neighbors, 
    lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 
But when you give a feast, invite the poor, 
    the crippled, the lame, the blind, 
    and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. 
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
 

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