Gather me into your loving arms, O Lord

March 3, 2023March 2, 2023 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Prodigal son drawing by Rembrandt, Wikimedia commons

Dear Father: How it must crush you when I turn my back on you and walk away.

How you must weep when you see me disappear over a far horizon

to squander my life in a distant country.

Thank you that although I have sometimes left home,

I have never left your heart.

Though I have forgotten about you,

you have never forgotten about me.

Thank you for the financial crisis or the famine or the pigsty

or whatever it took to bring me to my senses.

And thank you that even though what brought me home

were pangs of hunger instead of pangs of conscience,

yet still, even on those terms, you welcome me back.

Thank you for the forgiveness and the restoration you have lavished on me –

me, the one who needed them most but deserved them least.

I confess that there is inside me not only the prodigal son,

but also a critical older brother.

How dutiful I have sometimes been,

and yet so proud of the duties I have done.

How generous I have been in my opinion of myself,

and yet so judgmental in my opinion of others.

How often I have entered into criticism,

and yet how seldom I have entered into your joy.

Gather both the prodigal part of myself and the critical part of myself

in your loving arms, O Lord. And bring them home.

Ken Gire, American author and speaker

Moments with the Savior

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Luke 15:24

‘For this son of mine was dead and is alive again;

he was lost and is found.’

So they began to celebrate.

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Loss is indeed our gain

February 24, 2023February 23, 2023 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image

The pushing and shoving of the world is endless.

We are pushed and shoved.

And we do our fair share of pushing and shoving

in our great anxiety.

And in the middle of that

you have set down your beloved suffering son

who was like a sheep led to slaughter

who opened not his mouth.

We seem not able,

so we ask you to create the spaces in our life

where we may ponder his suffering

and your summons for us to suffer with him,

suspecting that suffering is the only way to come to newness.

So we pray for your church in these Lenten days,

when we are driven to denial —

not to notice the suffering,

not to engage it,

not to acknowledge it.

So be that way of truth among us

that we should not deceive ourselves.

That we shall see that loss is indeed our gain.

We give you thanks for that mystery from which we live.

Amen.

Walter Brueggemann, 1933 -, American Protestant Old Testament theologian

Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth

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1 Peter 2:21

For to this you have been called,

because Christ also suffered for you,

leaving you an example,

so that you might follow in his steps.

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desiring you with my whole heart

February 21, 2023February 21, 2023 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image

Give me grace, O my Father,

to be utterly ashamed of my own reluctance.

Rouse me from sloth and coldness,

and make me desire you with my whole heart.

Teach me to love

meditation, sacred reading and prayer.

Teach me to love

that which must engage my mind

for all eternity.

John Henry Newman, 1801-1890, English Catholic priest and poet

The Communion of Saints

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Jeremiah 29:13

You will seek me and find me,

when you seek me with all your heart.

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You justify the humble

March 16, 2021March 15, 2021 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

_{Publican & Pharisee Icon / Ted / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0}

Humility once exalted the tax collector,

who bewailed his sin

and cried: ‘Be merciful,’

and was justified.

Let him be our example,

for we have all fallen into the abyss of evil.

Let us cry to the Savior

from the bottom of our heart:

we have sinned, be merciful,

for you alone love us.

Lord, you condemned the Pharisee

who, boasting of his works,

justified himself.

You justified the tax collector

who, humbling himself,

with sorrowful sighing asked for mercy.

For you reject proud hearts.

but do not reject contrite hearts.

So in humility we prostrate ourselves

before you, who suffered for us.

Grant us forgiveness

and generous mercy.

From Orthodox Lent. Holy Week, Easter

Season of Devotion 365 Bible Readings and Prayers

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Luke 18:9-14

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“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.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

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remove anything that separates us

March 10, 2021March 10, 2021 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

I beg of you, my Lord,
to remove anything which separates
me from you, and you from me.
Remove anything that makes me unworthy
of your sight, your control, your discipline;
of your speech and conversation,
of your benevolence and love.
Cast from me every evil
that stands in the way of my seeing you,
hearing, tasting, savoring, and touching you;
fearing and being mindful of you;
knowing, trusting, loving, and possessing you;
being conscious of your presence
and, as far as may be, enjoying you.
This is what I ask for myself
and earnestly desire from you. Amen.

Peter Faber, 1506-1546, Jesuit Priest and co-founder of the Society of Jesus
Hearts in Fire Praying with Jesuits

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Hebrews 9:14

Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

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Sometimes I choose sin

March 5, 2021March 4, 2021 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Father – the truth about me is that often I choose sin:

Sometimes I choose hatred. Sometimes I choose slander.

Sometimes I choose envy. Sometimes I choose greed.

Sometimes I choose pettiness. Sometimes I choose lust.

Sometimes I choose gossip. Sometimes I choose pride.

Sometimes I choose self-reliance.

Sometimes I choose self-righteousness.

Sometimes I choose self-aggrandizement.

Sometimes I choose dishonesty.

Sometimes I choose unkind words.

Sometimes I choose to ignore the obvious needs around me.

Sometimes I choose to hoard my resources.

Sometimes I choose to neglect Your command to share the gospel.

The list of things I wrongly choose could go on and on. And sometimes

I act on these things in ways that are darker than I ever care to state.

Each time I make such a choice, I choose death.

Today, I ask that You breathe life into my soul afresh

and enable me to choose life – to choose You and Your ways.

Kurt Bjorklund, 1968- , American Minister and author or

Prayers for Today A Yearlong Journey of Devotional Prayer

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Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Praise to you, saving sacrifice

March 1, 2021February 28, 2021 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

_{Twelfth Station / Tango7174 / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons}

Lord Jesus Christ,

I approach your banquet table

in fear and trembling,

for I am a sinner,

and dare not rely on my own worth

but only on your goodness and mercy. . . .

Praise to you, saving sacrifice,

offered on the wood of the cross for me and for all mankind.

Praise to the noble and precious blood,

flowing from the wounds of my crucified Lord Jesus Christ

and washing away the sins of the whole world.

Remember, Lord, your creature,

whom you have redeemed with your blood.

John of Fecamp, 1028-1078, Benedictine spiritual writer

Praying to our Lord Jesus Christ

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Romans 5:9-10

And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ,

he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son

while we were still his enemies,

we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.

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cleanse me from my sin!

February 25, 2021February 24, 2021 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Where shall I begin to weep for the actions of my wretched life?

What first-fruit shall I offer, O Christ, in this my lamentation?
But in Your compassion grant me forgiveness of sins.

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

Come, wretched soul, with your flesh to the Creator of all.

Make confession to Him, and abstain henceforth from past brutishness;

and offer to God tears of repentance.

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

I have rivaled in transgression, Adam, the first-formed man,

and I have found myself stripped naked of God,

of the eternal Kingdom and its joy, because of my sins.

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

Woe to you, miserable soul! How alike you are to first Eve!

For you have looked in wickedness and were grievously wounded;

you have touched the tree and rashly tasted the deceptive food.