help me to remember the hungry; When I have work, help me to remember the jobless; When I have a home, help me to remember those who have no home at all; When I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer, And remembering, help me to destroy my complacency; bestir my compassion, and be concerned enough to help; By word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted. Amen.
Samuel F. Pugh, 1904 – 2007, Disciples of Christ minister, United States
Lord, when we say ‘Give us today our daily bread,’ may we remember our brothers and sisters who live below the poverty line and pray, ‘Give them today their daily bread.’ Give us the wisdom and courage to challenge the policies and structures which make the poor even poorer, while we have more than enough. Grant us such deep compassion that we will not rest while surplus food rots in one part of the world, and families starve in another; for your love’s sake.
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
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Question
How can you remember to pray more regularly for the poor
Why can’t I retreat into a mountain and enjoy the rest of my life, sipping wine, looking at the moon and making haiku like the one “enlightened”?
However hard and long I may raise my insignificant voice of anger, I know I cannot stop this stream; but I cannot give up.
Those who attained perfect enlightenment yell at me from this world and the other, “Hey! You have been a Christian for a long time. How come you are not awakened yet!”
I do not want to attain enlightenment in the Buddhist sense. My enlightenment is to follow Christ and go into the world. I do not want to separate myself from the world. And in the face of mounting injustice and misery, I would like to live with those suffering people, because Christ lives with them.
I often get lost, get angry, worry and make cries of protest, but Christ is with me and soothes me.
“God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh.
What blessings await you when people hate you
and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil
because you follow the Son of Man.”
__________________________
Questions
Who is someone in your neighborhood that could use your help?
O Lord our God, how excellent is your name in all the World! Your glorious majesty is excellent, but that brings me nothing; your justice is excellent, but that brings me nothing. It is your mercy that must do me good, and therefore your other excellencies I adore, but this I invocate. To invoke your justice, I dare not; your glory, I cannot, but your mercy, I both dare and can.
For why should I not dare, when fear gives me boldness? How should I not be able when weakness gives me strength? Why should I not dare, when you invite me to it? How should I not be able when you draw me to it?
Do you invite me, and I shall not come? Do you draw me, and I shall draw back? Can there be a patron so powerful as you? Can there be a beggar so dejected as myself?
Whom, then, is it more fit to ask for mercy than you, O God, who are the God of mercy? And for whom is it more fit to ask for mercy than for me who am a creature of misery?
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
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Questions
Do you believe that God’s mercies are always available for you? Do you believe that God’s mercy invites and encourages you
Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ within them. Fast from an emphasis on difference; feast on the unity of life. Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light. Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify. Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude. Fast from anger; feast on patience. Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation. Fast from worry; feast on trust in God’s Care. Fast from unrelenting pressure; feast on unceasing prayer. Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm. Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire. Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity. Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness. Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others. Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth. Fast from discouragements; feast on hope.
William Arthur Ward 1921-1994 Texan Methodist minister ___________________________
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
_________________________
Question
What is one worldly area that you can begin fasting from
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
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
prayer & verse 
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