you have forgiven me such great sins

August 31, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

The Conversion of St. Augustine by Fra Angelico, via Wikimedia Commons

What return shall I make to the Lord

for my ability to recall these things with no fear in my soul?

I will love you, Lord, and thank you, and praise your name,

because you have forgiven me such great sins and such wicked deeds.

I acknowledge that it was by your grace and mercy

that you melted away my sins like ice.

I acknowledge, too, that by your grace

I was preserved from whatever sins I did not commit,
for there was no knowing what I might have done,

since I loved evil even if it served no purpose.

I avow that you have forgiven me all,
both the sins which I committed of my own accord

and those which by your guidance I was spared from committing.

What man who reflects upon his own weakness

can dare to claim that his own efforts have made him chaste and free from sin,

as though this entitled him to love you the less,

on the ground that he had less need of the mercy

by which you forgive the sins of the penitent?

There are some who have been called by you

and because they have listened to your voice

they have avoided the sins which I here record and confess for them to read.

But let them not deride me for having been cured by the same Doctor

who preserved them from sickness,

or at least from such grave sickness as mine.

Let them love you just as much, or even more, than I do,

for they can see that the same healing hand

which rid me of the great fever of my sins

protects them from falling sick of the same disease.

St. Augustine of Hippo, 354-430

Confessions Book II, Section 7 online source

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Psalm 116:1-9

I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came over me;
I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Lord, save me!”

The Lord is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
The Lord protects the unwary;
when I was brought low, he saved me.

Return to your rest, my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

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Separate us from forgiven sins

July 25, 2024July 24, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image, Steve F, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Father, when You forgive sins,

You separate them as far from us as the east is from the west

Bury them in the bottom of the deepest sea

and put up a sign for the devil that says,

NO FISHING.

Corrie Ten Boom, 1892-1983, Dutch Holocaust Survivor and author

Prayers for Today

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Psalm 103:11-12

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

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Teach us to pray

May 17, 2024May 16, 2024 / Eric Mathews / 1 Comment

image via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Lord, teach us to pray.

Some of us are not skilled in the art of prayer.

As we draw near to you in thought, our spirits long for your Spirit,

and reach out for you, longing to feel you near.

We do not know how to express the deepest emotions

that lie hidden in our hearts.

In these moments, we have no polished phrases

with which to impress one another,

no finely molded, delicately turned clauses to present to you.

Nor would we be confined to conventional petitions,

repeating our prayers like reverent mantras.

We know, our Father, that we are closest to you

when we have left behind

the things that have held us captive for so long.

We do not want to be ignorant in prayer and, like children,

make shopping lists for you.

Rather, we pray that you will give unto us only what we really need.

We do not want to make our prayers so that they annoy you,

an omnipotent God, so that you do what we want you to do.

Rather, give us the vision, the courage,

that enlarges our horizons and stretches our faith

to the adventure of seeking your loving will for our lives

We thank you that you are hearing us even now.

We thank you for the grace of prayer.

We thank you for yourself.

Peter Marshall, 1902 – 1949, Chaplain of the US Senate
HarperCollins Book of Prayers, freely modified

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Matthew 6:6-8

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door

and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret,

will reward you.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans,

for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need

before you ask him.

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patient, kind & compassionate Lord

April 30, 2024April 29, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Do you roll your eyes in frustration, Lord,
when I pay no attention to you, to your truth,
– not even to common sense?

Do you want to dope slap me, Lord,
when I miss the better, right choice to make
– staring me right in the face?

Do you ever turn and walk away
when I, for the thousandth time,
make the same foolish, stupid mistake?

No, Lord, you don’t…

Instead,
you show me time and again
the things I’ve failed to see,
you look with compassion and mercy
on me and all my folly,
you always, freely, pardon my sins
and grant me a new beginning…
Patient, kind and compassionate Lord,
be gracious to me today – as you always are –
and help me grow in your grace…

Amen.

Fr. Austin Fleming, Roman Catholic Priest in Massachusetts

Concord Pastor Comments

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Psalm 78:36-39

But all they gave him was lip service;
they lied to him with their tongues.
Their hearts were not loyal to him.
They did not keep his covenant.
Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins
and did not destroy them all.
Many times he held back his anger
and did not unleash his fury!
For he remembered that they were merely mortal,
gone like a breath of wind that never returns.

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believing in the resurrection of Jesus

April 12, 2024April 11, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image, by William Hole, via Wikimedia Commons

Almighty God,
Who through the death of your Son

has destroyed sin and death,
And by his resurrection

has restored innocence and everlasting life,
That we may be delivered from the dominion of the devil,

and our mortal bodies raised up from the dead:
Grant that we may confidently and whole-heartedly

believe this,

And, finally, with your saints,

share in the joyful resurrection of the just;
through the same Jesus Christ,

your Son, our Lord.

Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German Reformer

Encyclopedia of Prayer and Praise

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John 20:31

But these are written that you may believe

that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,

and that by believing

you may have life in his name.

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Easter Prayer of Pope Gregory the Great

April 2, 2024April 1, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

source by Luca Giordano via Wikipedia

It is only right, with all the powers of our heart and mind,

to praise You Father and Your Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dear Father, by Your wondrous condescension of Loving-Kindness

toward us, Your servants, You gave up Your Son.

Dear Jesus You paid the debt of Adam for us to the Eternal Father

by Your Blood poured forth in Loving-Kindness.
You cleared away the darkness of sin

by Your magnificent and radiant Resurrection.
You broke the bonds of death and rose from the grave as a Conqueror.
You reconciled Heaven and earth.
Our life had no hope of Eternal Happiness before You redeemed us.
Your Resurrection has washed away our sins,

restored our innocence and brought us joy.
How inestimable is the tenderness of Your Love!

We pray You, Lord, to preserve Your servants

in the peaceful enjoyment of this Easter happiness.
We ask this through Jesus Christ Our Lord,

Who lives and reigns with God The Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

forever and ever.

Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540 – 604) of Rome, Patron Saint of Teachers

source

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1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again

to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

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waiting prayer for Holy Saturday

March 30, 2024April 18, 2025 / Eric Mathews / 1 Comment

Holy Saturday by Roxolana Luczakowsky via Facebook

This is the hardest time to pray:
after the drama and catastrophe,
before the angels and the big reveal.
The passion, the agony, the desperate grief
have given way to numbness
and absence
in this time in between.

God seems to be offstage,
preparing for the final scene,
taking care of ancient souls in other worlds
or clothing the hidden, broken body
in resurrection glory.

So let our prayer this day be plain
and to the point:

May God be with us in the waiting,
and may we wait with hope,
today
and every time in between.

Amen.

Kerry Greenhill, Methodist Deacon and Minister

source

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Matthew 27:57-61

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph,

who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.

Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.

He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

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Jesus, touch our eyes

March 21, 2024April 2, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Andrey Mironov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lord Jesus, touch our eyes,
as you did those of the blind;
then we shall see
in things that are visible
those things which are invisible.

Lord Jesus, open our ears,
heal our wounds and purify our lives,
as you did those who came to you;
then we shall hear and perceive what is true
amidst the sounds of the world,
and find wholeness in ourselves.

after Origen, 185—254, Alexandrian Theologian

The Book of a Thousand Prayers

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Mark 8:22-25

They came to Bethsaida,

and some people brought a blind man

and begged Jesus to touch him.

He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.

When he had spit on the man’s eyes

and put his hands on him, Jesus asked,

“Do you see anything?”
He looked up and said,

“I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes.

Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored,

and he saw everything clearly.

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Have mercy on my darkness, my ashes

March 15, 2024March 14, 2024 / Eric Mathews / 2 Comments

photo by Elvis Bekmanis on Unsplash

Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on my darkness, my weakness, my confusion.

Have mercy on my infidelity, my cowardice, my turning about in circles,

my wandering, my evasions.

I do not ask anything but such mercy, always, in everything, mercy.

My life here at Gethsemani – a little solidity and very much ashes.

Almost everything is ashes.

What I have prized most is ashes.

What I have attended to least is, perhaps, a little solid.

Lord have mercy.

Guide me, make me want again to be holy,

to be a man of God even though in desperateness and confusion.

I do not necessarily ask for clarity, a plain way,

but only to go according to Your love,

to follow your mercy, to trust in Your mercy.

Thomas Merton, 1915 – 1968, American Catholic writer and Trappist monk

Dialogues with Silence

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Psalm 30:8-12

To you, Lord, I called;
to the Lord I cried for mercy:
“What is gained if I am silenced,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me;
Lord, be my help.”

You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

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