Light

Our Overcoming Advocate

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Jesus and the woman taken in adultery, Émile Signol via Wikimedia Commons
 
There was a time when I did not exist
   Yet you have created me;
I did not beg you for a wish
   Yet you have fulfilled it;
I did not come into the light
   Yet you have seen me;
I had not yet appeared
   And you have taken pity on me;
I had not appealed to you
   Yet you have taken care of me;
I did not raise my hand
   Yet you have looked at me;
I had not entreated you
   Yet you were merciful to me;
I had not uttered a sound
   Yet you have heard me;
I had not groaned
   Yet you have lent an ear.
With eyes that knew the future, you saw
   The crimes of my guilty self
   And yet you have fashioned me;
And now, I who have been created by you
and saved by you
and have been tended with such care,
   Let me not completely perish by the blow of sin.
      That is but the slanderer’s invention;
   Let not the fog of my stubbornness
      Triumph over the light of your forgiveness;
   Nor the hardness of my heart
       Triumph over your forbearing goodness.

Gregory of Narek, 951-1003, Armenian monk and mystical theologian

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1 John 2:1

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.

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Question

When you consider that God knew we would choose our own way instead of his, 
    yet his plan offered salvation regardless, 
    how does that knowledge help us when we sin blatantly again?

Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!

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Christ heals a Demoniac, Jean-Guillaume Carlier via Wikimedia Commons
 
​Lord, I want to love you, yet I’m not sure.

    I want to trust you, yet I’m afraid of being taken in.
    I know I need you, yet I’m ashamed of the need.
    I want to pray, yet I’m afraid of being a hypocrite.
    I need my independence, yet I fear to be alone.
    I want to belong, yet I must be myself.
    Take me, Lord, yet leave me alone.
    Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief.
O Lord, if you are there, you do understand, don’t you?
Give me what I need but leave me free to choose.
Help me work it out my own way, but don’t let me despair.
    Come unto me, O Lord – I want you there.
    Lighten my darkness – but don’t dazzle me.
    Help me to see what I need to do and give me strength to do it.
O Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.
 
Brother Bernard SSF, 1928-2007, English Franciscan
The Oxford Book of Prayer


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Mark 9:20-24 
 
And they brought the boy to him.
And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy,
    and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
And Jesus asked his father,
    “How long has this been happening to him?”
And he said, “From childhood.
    And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him.
    But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
And Jesus said to him,
    “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said,
    “I believe; help my unbelief!”

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Questions

When have you prayed, needing God to do something big,
  but were unsure if your request was within God’s will and purpose?
Have you ever approached God with a real need but were unsure of how to pray?  

True Enlightenment

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The Apparition of the Messiah, Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, via Wikimedia Commons

 
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.

Yorifumi Yaguchi, 1932- , Japanese Mennonite poet and pastor
Readings from Mennonite Writings New & Old

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Luke 6:20-22 

Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said,

“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.”

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Questions

Who is someone in your neighborhood that could use your help? 
What is the need you can meet?

Nothing, I am nothing

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​image via Pinterest
 
Lord, you wanted it, here I am on the ground.
I don’t even dare to rise, I don’t even dare look at you.
Nothing, I am nothing, I know it now.
Your light is terrible, Lord, and I’d like to escape it.
Since I have accepted you, you have bared my dwelling.
Every day, mercilessly, your light uncovers it,
And I see what I had never seen before.

I see the forest of my sins behind the tree that hid them.
I see innumerable roots, impossible to grasp,
I see that everything in me is an obstacle to you,
  as the smallest particle of matter blocks the sunlight
  and brings on the night.
I see the devil attacking the key-points of the fortress
  that I thought impregnable,
  and I find myself tottering and ready to fall.
I see my helplessness,
  I who thought that I could make myself of value to you.
I see that everything in me is mixed,
  and that not one of my actions is pure.
I see the infinite depth of each fault
  in the face of your infinite love.
I feel incapable of reaching a single soul,
  through the noise of my words and the wind on my gestures.
I see the Spirit blow where I haven’t toiled,
  and the grain take root where I haven’t sown.

Nothing, I am nothing, I accomplish nothing,
  I know it now.
Your light is hard, merciless, Lord.
No corner of my life and soul remain in the shadow.
Turn as I may, your light is everywhere,
And I stand naked and full of fear.

Formerly, I admitted that I was a sinner,
  that I was unworthy,
And I believed it, Lord, but didn’t know it.
In your presence I looked for some faults
  but produced only labored and feeble confessions.
Lord, it’s my whole being that kneels now
  It’s the sin that I am that asks forgiveness.

Lord, thank you for your light – I would never have known.
But, Lord, enough.  I assure you I’ve understood.
I am nothing
And you are all.

Michel Quoist, 1918 – 1997, French Catholic priest
Prayers of Life

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John 15:5 

I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him,
    he it is that bears much fruit,
    for apart from me you can do nothing

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Question

Have you ever seen yourself as being important 
    to what God wants to accomplish?

Breathe on our dust – Ash Wednesday Prayer

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image via Pinterest

We respectfully submit, O God,
on this Ash Wednesday,
within our grieving
deaths and diagnoses,
that life offers us enough reminders of death
to need a liturgical one.

So remind us,
gracefully,
that we are ritually marked by death
in order to live—
and to live more abundantly.
Remind us,
faithfully,
that you breathed on the dust that became us,
and that you will breathe on the dust we become,
and that your breath on dust
always means life
and light and love.
Remind us,
hopefully,
always,
of Your presence with us,
day by day—
breathing—
fulfilling us with life ever new.
Amen.

John Ballenger, Baptist pastor in Maryland

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Psalm 90:3-12

You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.

You sweep them away as with a flood;
they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.

For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?

So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.

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Question:


When you think about your life and death
And one day returning to the earth,
how does the truth that God will breathe over your dust once again                                      give you comfort or hope?

Come, O true Light

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Hagia Sofia, Istanbul, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, via Flickr
 
Come, O true Light!
Come, O eternal life!
Come, O hidden mystery!
Come, O indescribable treasure!
Come, O powerful one,
    who always creates and re-creates and transforms
    by your will alone!

Come, you whom my wretched soul
     has desired and does desire!
Come, you who alone go to the lonely
    for as you see I am lonely!
Come, you who have separated me from everything
    and made me solitary in this world!
Come, you who have become yourself desire in me,
    who have made me desire you,
    the absolutely inaccessible one!

Yea, O Master, just as you remembered me,
    when I was in the world
    and, in the midst of my ignorance,
    you chose me and separated me from this world
    and set me before your glorious face,
so now keep me interiorly,
    by your dwelling within me,
    forever upright, resolute;
that by perpetually seeing you,
    I, the corpse, may live;
that by possessing you,
    I, the beggar, may always be rich,
    richer than kings;
that by eating you and by drinking you,
    by putting you on at each moment,
I go from delight to delight
    in inexpressible blessings.

Symeon the New Theologian 949–1022 Byzantine Orthodox monk
source
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John 1:9-10

The true light, which gives light to everyone,
    was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him,
    yet the world did not know him.
 
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When have you experienced the presence and love of God most powerfully?
Remember some of those times in prayer and praise.
 

Glide down into my longing soul

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​Simeon in the Temple, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, wikimedia commons
 
O sweet and true Joy,
O sweet and true Joy,
I pray Thee come!
Come O sweet and most desired!
I pray Thee come!
Come O sweet and most desired!
Come my Love, that art all my comfort!
Glide down into a soul longing for Thee
                                             and after Thee with sweet heat.
Kindle with Thy Heat the wholeness of my heart.
With Thy Light enlighten my inmost parts.
Feed me with honeyed songs of love,
    as far I may receive them
    by my powers of body and soul.

Richard Rolle 1290–1349 English writer, Bible translator and hermit
The Encyclopedia of Prayer and Praise
 
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Isaiah 61:10

I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
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What are some ways you can express joy praising God 
    as you anticipate the coming of Christ?

Continue reading →

Redeem us with your invading Light

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Light on the Rotunda by Lawrence OP vis Flickr
 
You are our eternal salvation,
The unfailing light of the world.
Light everlasting,
You are truly our redemption.
Grieving that the human race was perishing
    through the tempter’s power,
    without leaving the heights
You came to the depths in your loving kindness.
Readily taking our humanity by Your gracious will,
You saved all earthly creatures, long since lost,
Restoring joy to the world.
Redeem our souls and bodies, O Christ,
    and so possess us as Your shining dwellings.
By Your first coming, make us righteous;
At your second coming, set us free:
So that, when the world is filled with light
    and you judge all things,
We may be clad in spotless robes
    and follow in Your steps, O King,
    Into the heavenly hall.

Unknown Author, 10th century
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John 1:5

The light shines in the darkness
    and the darkness has not overcome it.
 
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How have you seen God’s everlasting light transform the world?
In what area of your life are you waiting for God’s light to shine?

Continue reading →

Send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations

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Savault Chapel, France, Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
 
Lord Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness,
    send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.
We who have so much to do
    seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.
We who are anxious over many things
    look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways
    long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy
    seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people,
    walking in darkness,
    yet seeking the light.
To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!”

Henri Nouwen 1932 – 1996 Dutch Catholic priest and author
source
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Isaiah 42:6, 16

I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
    I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people
    and a light for the Gentiles

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
    along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
    and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
    I will not forsake them.
 
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What is one way that you can prepare your heart this Advent season? 

Be with us in our darkness

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Journey of the Three Magi to Bethlehem, Leonaert Bramer, via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
We wait in the darkness,
expectantly, longingly, anxiously, thoughtfully.
 
The darkness is our friend.
 
In the darkness of the womb,
we have all been nurtured and protected.
 
In the darkness of the womb
the Christ-child was made ready for the journey into light.
 
It is only in the darkness
that we can see the splendour of the universe –
blankets of stars, the solitary glowings of the planets.
 
It was the darkness that allowed the Magi to find the star
that guided them to where the Christ-child lay.
 
In the darkness of the night,
desert people find relief from the cruel relentless heat of the sun.
 
In the blessed desert darkness
Mary and Joseph were able to flee with the infant Jesus
to safety in Egypt.
 
In the darkness of sleep,
we are soothed and restored, healed and renewed.
 
In the darkness of sleep, dreams rise up.
God spoke to Joseph and the wise men through dreams.
God is speaking still.
 
Sometimes in the solitude of the darkness
our fears and concerns, our hopes and visions
rise to the surface.
We come face to face with ourselves
and with the road that lies ahead of us.
And in that same darkness
we find companionship for the journey.
 
In that same darkness
we sometimes allow ourselves to wonder and worry
whether the human race is going to survive.
 
And then, in the darkness
we know that you are with us, O God,
yet still we await your coming.
 
In the darkness that contains both our hopelessness and our hope,
we watch for a sign of God’s hope.
 
For you are with us, O God,
in darkness and in light.
 
James Hawes, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand 
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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?