redeem

Redeem us with your invading Light

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
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?

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Jesus, you are stronger

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

 

O Lord Jesus Christ,
There is so much to drag us back:
    empty pursuits, trivial pleasures, unworthy cares.
There is so much to frighten us away:
    a pride too cowardly to submit to being helped,
    cowardly apprehensiveness which evades danger
        to its own destruction,
    anguish for sin which shuns holy cleansing
        as a disease shuns medicine.
 
But You are stronger than these.
    so draw us now more strongly to Yourself.
We call You our Savior and Redeemer,
    since You came to earth to redeem us 
    from the slavery from which we were bound
    or had bound ourselves.
 
This is Your work,
    which You completed,
    and which you will continue to complete
    until the end of the world;
for since You Yourself have said it,
     therefore You will do it –
lifted up from earth, You will draw all unto Yourself.
 
Søren Kierkegaard, 1813 – 1855, Danish philosopher and theologian
from The Prayers of Kierkgaard, freely modified
 
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But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, 
    not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. 
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 
    whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior

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Jesus, Lord of Salvation

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
 
How is it, dearest Jesus, 
    that you graciously reached down to visit your chosen, 
    even so long before your time on earth? 
To tell your people that your thoughts were good, and not evil?
 
When you appeared to Joshua in human form 
    as Captain of the Lord’s host, 
he instantly knew your glorious character as Mediator, 
    and fell to the earth in adoration.
 
Hail then, you almighty Lord, you Captain of the Lord’s host,
    and of my salvation! 
You have entered the holy war and led captivity captive.  
You have fully conquered Satan and sin, and death, and hell, 
    for your people.
 
And you will surely conquer all those tremendous foes of ours, 
    in your people, and bruise Satan under our feet shortly. 
Indeed, dear Lord, you have already brought them under, 
    for by your sovereign grace in the hearts of your redeemed, 
    you have made your people “willing in the day of your power.”
 
By the sword of your Spirit, you have convinced my soul of sin, 
   and by the arrows of your quiver, 
    you have wounded my heart with deep contrition for sin. 
Lord, I fall before you, as your servant Joshua did, and worship you.
 
And with all the church of the redeemed, 
    both in heaven and earth, we cheerfully confess  
  “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 
Amen!
 
Robert Hawker, 1753-1827, Anglican Priest
 
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When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, 
    he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him 
    with sword in hand. 
Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”
“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”

At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence.

“I am at your command,” Joshua said. 
“What do you want your servant to do?”

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reconcile us

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
O God, Giver of Life, Bearer of Pain, Maker of Love,
    you are able to accept in us what we cannot even acknowledge:
    you are able to name in us what we cannot bear to speak of ;
    you are able to hold in your memory what we have tried to forget;
    you are able to hold out to us the glory that we cannot conceive of.
 
Reconcile us through your cross to all that we have rejected in ourselves,
    that we may find no part of your creation to be alien or strange to us,
    and that we ourselves may be made whole.
Through Jesus Christ, our love and our friend.
 
Janet Morely, British author, poet, and Christian feminist
 
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But now, this is what the Lord says—
    he who created you, Jacob,
    he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
 
 
For God in all his fullness
    was pleased to live in Christ,
 and through him God reconciled
    everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
    by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

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Easter Prayer of Pope Gregory the Great

/ 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
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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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Pieces of wood . . . to build one cross

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
Pieces of wood,
broken and burnt,
stained with blood of family,
derelict in the smouldering heap.
The smell of death
in dusty roads,
sounds of weeping,
darkness and gloom.
 
Pieces of wood
pierce the wounded side,
lightning and thunder,
shots of gunfire,
rending cries of
mothers and daughters
in the sleepless houses
waiting for the first light.
 
My God, my God, why have you abandoned us?
why have you forgotten us,
forsaken us?
 
Cry rage and revenge,
slaughter and destruction.
How long will this be,
terror in the faces of children,
hatred and fear,
over a wilderness of shacks,
the other side of the city wall,
longing for peace?
 
My God, my God, why have you abandoned us?
why have you forgotten us,
forsaken us?
 
Come,
let us carry these pieces of wood,
once part of the same ancient tree
used to build houses, proud and sturdy,
now charred ruins of dwelling places,
scattered and aloof.
 
Bind piece with piece
to build one cross.
 
Cross of Bhambayi
shelter me,
hide me from the
pain and agony
as the blood,
like justice,
flows from the cross.
 
From the soil
sprouts a new year of freedom and healing
for captives
maimed in body and
maimed in hope.
 
Sacred mystery
on the holy ground,
tree of redemption,
the flowering tree which withers
and blossoms again
from Eden to Calvary
to Easter . . .
to Bhambayi . . . 
 
Devarkshanam Betty Govinden, South African academic, author and poet
 
________________________
 
 
Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God 
    by means of his death on the cross, 
    and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
 

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Glory be to God on high

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image / Lawrence OP / Flickr
 
 
Glory be to God on high,
and on earth peace,
peace among those of good will.
We praise you, we bless you,
we give thanks for your great glory,
holy God, tender God, God our beloved creator.
 
Christ our desire 
only embodiment of God,
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
foolishness of God, greater than human wisdom,
emptiness of God, full of redemption,
bearing away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us.
Holy one, bearing away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us.
Beloved one, bearing away the sin of the world,
receive our prayer.
 
For you alone are holy,
you alone our desire.
You alone, O Christ,
with the comforter of fire,
are radiant with the grace and glory of God most high.
 
Janet Morely, British poet and theologian
 
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For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
 

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my merciful Redeemer

/ Eric Mathews / 1 Comment
image / falco / pixabay
 
O Lord, I am your clay. You are my potter and skilled master.  Because you pronounce me a sinner, I accept your word.  I sincerely acknowledge and confess the godless condition which shows itself in my flesh and my entire nature.  I do so that you may be glorified and I humiliated.  As with all others, I am sin and death; you are life and righteousness.  Together with all people I am the worst evil; you are and remain the highest good.  I acknowledge and confess all this.  I am led to this confession not by my reason, which would rather cover up and disguise this godless condition, but through your law and promises, I want your honor to stay and increase.  
 
Lord, I am your sin; you are my righteousness.  Therefore I am glad and have victory without fear.  For my sin cannot outweigh or overpower your righteousness.  Neither will your righteousness permit me to be or remain a sinner.  Your Spirit, O Lord, must make and keep me alive.  Blessed are you, O faithful God, my merciful Redeemer.  In you alone do I trust.  Amen.
 
Martin Luther, 1483 – 1546, German Reformer
 
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I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
 

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resplendent Jesus, have mercy

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 image / pxhere
 
O Lord; O King, resplendent in the citadel of heaven, all hail continually;
    and of your clemency upon your people still have mercy.
Lord, whom the hosts of cherubim in songs and hymns
    with praise continually proclaim, upon us eternally have mercy.
The armies aloft, O Lord, sing praise to you;
    those to whom the seraphim reply, ‘have mercy.’
O Christ, enthroned as king above,
    whom the nine orders of angels in their beauty
    praise without ceasing,
    upon us, your servants, ever have mercy.
O Christ, hymned by your one and only church throughout the world,
    to whom the sun, and moon, and stars, the land and sea,
    ever do service, have mercy.
O Christ, those holy ones, the heirs of the eternal country,
    one and all with utter joy proclaim you in a must worthy strain:
    have mercy upon us.
O Lord, O gentle son of Mary free;
O King of kings, blessed redeemer;
    upon those who have been ransomed from the power of death,
    by your own blood, even have mercy.
O noblest unbegotten, yet begotten Son, having no beginning,
    yet without effort (in the weakness of God) excelling all things,
    upon this your people in your pity, Lord have mercy.
O sun of righteousness, in all unclouded glory,
    supreme dispenser of justice,
    in that great day when you strictly judge all nations,
    we earnestly beseech you, upon this your people,
    who here stand before your presence,
    in your pity, Lord, then have mercy on us.
 
Dunstan, c. 909 – 988, English monastic and bishop
 
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Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence,
    so that we may receive mercy 
    and find grace to help us in our time of need.
 

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Glory to the Trinity

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Trinity image / Metropolitan Museum of Art / public domain
 
Grant, O God, of your mercy, that we may come to everlasting life,
    and there beholding your glory as it is, may equally say:
Glory to the Father who created us,
Glory to the Son who redeemed us,
Glory to the Holy Spirit who sanctified us.
Glory to the most high and undivided Trinity, 
    whose works are inseparable,
    whose kingdom without end abides,
    from age to age forever.
Amen.
 
St. Augustine of Hippo, 354 – 430 
 
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May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
    and the love of God, 
    and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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