wisdom

Sin’s True Colors

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
Lord God,
when the devil presents the bait,
    show us the hook.
When the devil presents the golden cup
    show the poison hidden inside.
When the devil presents the sweet pleasure of sin,
    show us the misery that will follow.
When the devil presents the profit of yielding to sin,
    show us the wrath that comes from committing it.
When Satan promises the soul honor and profit,
    give us eyes to see the shame and loss he delivers.
Strengthen our resolve
    that we keep at the greatest possible distance from sin,
    and not play with the golden bait held out by Satan.
 
May we tremble at sin, and keep our distance from it.
Give us eyes to see that sin is a bitter sweet
    whose sweetness quickly vanishes,
     replaced by lasting shame, sorrow, horror and terror.
May we fear to lose
    that divine favor that is better than life,
        that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory,
            that peace that passes understanding,
                those divine influences by which our souls
                are refreshed, raised and gladdened.
 
Help us to see when Satan paints sin with virtue’s colors:
    when pride is called neatness and cleanliness,
    when covetousness is called good stewardship,
    when drunkenness is called good company,
    when a lack of self-control is called liberality,
    and when wild living is called youthful tricks.
Help us to see through the deceits of sin.
Help us to see sin as one day we will see it:
    when what once appeared sweet will appear most bitter,
    what once appeared beautiful will appear most ugly,
    what once appeared delightful will appear most dreadful.
 
Gracious Father, may we reckon the true price of our sin:
    that it cost the best blood, the noblest blood,
        the life-blood, the heart-blood of our Lord Jesus.
 
Thomas Brooks, 1608–1680, English Puritan preacher and author
 
_____________________________
 

Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
 

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Let God be my portion

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Parable of the hidden treasure, Rembrandt or Gerard Dou, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Let the eternal God be the portion of my soul;
let heaven be my inheritance and hope;
let Christ be my Head and my promise of security;
let faith be my wisdom,
and love my very heart and will.
and patient persevering obedience be my life;
 
and then I can spare the wisdom of the world,
because I can spare the trifles that it seeks.
 
Richard Baxter, 1615-1691, English Puritan
 
______________________
 
 
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, 
where moth and rust destroy 
    and where thieves break in and steal, 
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 
where neither moth nor rust destroys 
    and where thieves do not break in and steal.

prayer for Christian leaders

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Shepherd with a Flock of Sheep, Van Gogh, via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
Lord, cleanse our churches, and repair their walls,
    so that they may become gardens of delight
    for Christ to walk in and take pleasure in.
May her ministers be faithful and wise:
    faithful so they do not deceive others;
    wise so they do not deceive themselves.
May their wisdom prevent deceivers imposing on them,
    and their faithfulness prevent them imposing on others.
May their wisdom enable them to discern
    wholesome food for the flock
and their faithfulness oblige them to distribute it.
 
May our leaders be pure
    with spiritual aims and intentions,
serving not their own honor and intentions, but yours.
 
May our leaders show sincerity,
    not appearing outwardly spiritual
        while being inwardly carnal.
 
May our leaders be diligent,
    like men in harvest,
        like women in labor,
            like men in battle,
                watching while others sleep.
 
May our leaders lack favoritism,
    as those who will appear before an impartial God.
May they take the same care,
    manifest the same love,
        show the same diligence
        to the poorest and weakest souls in their care
        as they do the rich, the great and the honorable.
    For all souls are rated the same in your book of life,
    and our Redeemer paid as much for one as the other.
 
May their faithfulness fix their eyes on the right end,
    and may their wisdom direct them
    to the best means of attaining it.
May they lay a good foundation of knowledge in our souls,
    choosing subjects that will meet our needs,
    shaping the language in which they address us,
    using their own affections to move us,
    being careful of their behavior.
Send them often to their knees
    to seek your blessings upon their labor,
    knowing that all their success 
        entirely depends upon you.
 
John Flavel, c. 1627–1691, English Puritan Presbyterian minister
__________________________
 
 
To the elders among you, 
I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings 
    who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, 
    watching over them—not because you must, 
    but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; 
    not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve ; 
    not lording it over those entrusted to you, 
    but being examples to the flock.
 

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Jesus, Enter this Dark World again

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Massacre of the Innocents, ​Giotto, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Dear Jesus,

It’s a good thing you were born at night. 
This world sure seems dark. 
I have a good eye for silver linings. 
But they seem dimmer lately.

These killings, Lord. 
These children, Lord. 
Innocence violated. 
Raw evil demonstrated.

The whole world seems on edge. 
Trigger-happy. Ticked off. 
We hear threats of chemical weapons and nuclear bombs. 
Are we one button-push away from annihilation?

Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas. 
But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. 
The shepherds were nightshift workers. 
The Wise Men followed a star. 
Your first cries were heard in the shadows. 
To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame. 
It was dark. 
    Dark with Herod’s jealousy. 
    Dark with Roman oppression. 
    Dark with poverty. 
    Dark with violence.

Herod went on a rampage, killing babies. 
Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt. 
You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene.

Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. 
Won’t you enter ours? 
We are weary of bloodshed. 
We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. 
We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

Hopefully,
Your Children

Max Lucado, 1955-, Texas pastor and author, written after the Sandy Hook shootings, 2012
source: Christian Post
 
______________________________

Matthew 2:16-18

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious,
    and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
    who were two years old and under, 
    in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
 
Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
  “A voice is heard in Ramah,
      weeping and great mourning,
  Rachel weeping for her children
      and refusing to be comforted,
      because they are no more.”
 
______________________________

Where is a dark place in your world where Jesus needs to enter anew?

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Defend the cradle of my mind

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
The Three Wise Men, by Henry Ossawa Tanner, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Come closer to me, closer still, O Power of the Holy Trinity.  
Enter into my consciousness more deeply 
    than thoughts and emblems of the world can.
In the same way as a wise mother, when she conceives,
    prepares and embellishes a cradle for her child,
    so prepare and embellish my mind for that which will be begotten from You,
    O Beauty and Purity.

Many evil thoughts lurk like serpents around the cradle of Your Son.
And many wicked desires emerge from my heart and seek the cradle of Your Prince,
    to poison Him with their arrows.

Defend the cradle of my mind,
    and teach my soul how to give birth and care for an infant.

Shroud in deep darkness 
    the journey of all malevolent visitors coming to see my newborn son.
And raise aloft a most radiant star 
    over the way of the Wise Men from the East,
    men who are truly wise, 
    because they are coming to visit my most precious child with three gifts—
    faith, hope, and love.

Come closer to me, still closer, my majestic Lord.

Nikolai Velimirovich 1881-1956 Serbian Orthodox monastic
Prayers by the Lake, source, edited
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Matthew 2:9-12

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, 
    and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them 
   until it stopped over the place where the child was. 
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, 
    and they bowed down and worshiped him. 
Then they opened their treasures 
    and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, 
    they returned to their country by another route.
__________________________________

How is your mind vulnerable to harmful thought patterns?
How can reflecting on the personhood of Jesus help protect your thought life?

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Let us grow with him

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
The Nativity, Federico Barocci 1597, wikimedia commons
 
 
O food and bread of angels,
   the angels are filled by you, are satisfied by you,
   but not to the point of satiety.
They live by you; they have wisdom by you.
By you they are blessed.

Where are you for my sake? In a mean lodging, in a manger.
For whom? He who rules the stars sucks at the breast.
He who speaks in the bosom of the Father is silent in the Mother’s lap.
But he will speak when he reaches a suitable age,
   and will fulfill for us the Gospel.
For our sakes he will suffer, for us he will die.
As an example of our reward, he will rise again.
He will ascend into Heaven before the eyes of his disciples,
   and will come from Heaven to judge the world.

Behold him lying in the manger; he is reduced to tininess,
   yet he has not lost anything of himself.
He has accepted what was not his,
   but he remains what he was.
Look, we have the infant Christ; let us grow with him.

Augustine of Hippo 354-430
Praying to Our Lord Jesus Christ
_____________________________

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God 
    something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.
____________________________

How is it that Jesus could be fully God even as he was a tiny baby?
How is Jesus’ birth the beginning of the Gospel fulfillment?

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O come, O come, Emmanuel

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Refrain:
   Rejoice! Rejoice!
   Emmanuel
   shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.  

O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
from depths of hell thy people save,
and give them victory over the grave.

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Latin hymn from the 12th century

Isaiah 7:14 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and shall call his name Immanuel.
 

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love for the Eternal Trinity

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena, Giovanni di Paolo, via Wikimedia Commons

 
O Eternal God! O Eternal Trinity!
Through the union of your divine nature you have made so precious
    the blood of your only begotten Son!
O eternal Trinity, you are as deep a mystery as the sea,
    in whom the more I seek, the more I find;
    and the more I find, the more I seek.
For even immersed in the depths of you,
    my soul is never satisfied, always famished and hungering for you,
    eternal Trinity, wishing and desiring to see you, the true light.
 
O eternal Trinity, with the light of understanding
    I have tasted and seen the depths of your mystery
                         and the beauty of your creation.
In seeing myself in you, I have seen that I will become like you.
 
O eternal Father, from your power and your wisdom
    clearly you have given me a share of that wisdom
    which belongs to your only begotten Son.
And truly the Holy Spirit,
    who proceeds from You, Father and Son,
    has given to me the desire to love You.
 
Catherine of Siena, 1347 – 1380, Italian Dominican mystic
 
____________________________
 
 
Hear me as I pray, O Lord.
    Be merciful and answer me!
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
    And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

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How do I kill time?

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image via pixabay
 
 
How do I kill time?
Let me count the ways.
 
By worrying about things
over which I have no control.
Like the past.
Like the future.
 
By harboring resentments
and anger
over hurts
real or imagined.
 
By disdaining the ordinary
or, rather, what I
so mindlessly
call ordinary.
 
By concern over what’s in it for me,
rather than what’s in me
for it.
 
By failing to appreciate what is
because of might-have beens,
should-have-beens,
could-have-beens.
 
These are some of the ways
I kill time.
 
Jesus didn’t kill time.
He gave life to it. 
His own.
 
Leo Rock, SJ 1929-1998, Jesuit priest, author and spiritual director
 
________________
 
 
So be careful how you live. 
Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 
Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 
Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

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Open unto me

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
 
Open unto me, light for my darkness
Open unto me, courage for my fear
Open unto me, hope for my despair
Open unto me, peace for my turmoil
Open unto me, joy for my sorrow
Open unto me, strength for my weakness
Open unto me, wisdom for my confusion
Open unto me, forgiveness for my sins
Open unto me, tenderness for my toughness
Open unto me, love for my hates
Open unto me, Thy Self for myself
Lord, Lord, open unto me!

Howard Thurman, 1899-1981, American author, educator and civil rights leader
___________________________________
 
 
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
   the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
    he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
 

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