On the Last Day of 2020, Thank You God!

Good Lord,
it's the last day of 2020...

Only a few hours left in this old year
which seemed so new
oh, not-so-long ago...

Where has the old year gone, Lord?
And how did it go?

And how did I go with you,
make my way with you, Lord,
these past twelve months?

I remember the times
we walked and talked together,
side by side,
you and I...

And I remember the times
when I forgot, somehow,
that you were right there by my side,
and the times I tried to pretend
that you weren't there,
always within arm's reach...

I remember the times when you took delight
in my words and my work
and I remember the times I ignored and forgot you
- but still you loved me
and in your mercy, you forgave me...

Nothing I've done, Lord,
merits what you've given me:
all your love is grace,
an unearned gift
from your heart to mine...

In return I offer so little
and I have so little to offer...

But there comes now a new year, Lord,
and with it my prayer
to live a life more worthy
of all you so freely give me...

In this new year, Lord,
make strong my resolve to be faithful,
make deep my trust in your presence
and make sure my hope in your promise,
for without your help
I will fail...

Lord, you offer me only
what is true and pure,
good and just, strong and graced...

In this new year, help me recognize
what is false, cheap and sham...

Help me to settle for nothing less
than what comes from your heart and hand...

Nourish me, Lord:
give me a hunger for what is genuine,
a thirst for what is holy,
a wisdom for discerning your gifts...

It's the last day of the old year, Lord...

Shake from my heart what has no place there
and wake my heart
to the gift of your grace
and the dawn of a new beginning...

Amen.

(from my online friend Austin Fleming's A Concord Pastor Comments blog, and updated to 2020)

At the Close of Another Year

Our great and Gracious God,

As we come to the close of another year, we would indeed make it the prayer of our hearts that you would abide with us.

We thank you that you have been with us through the days of this past year.

Perhaps many a day we have not felt you near,
Perhaps at times we have even felt that you have
forsaken us and forgotten us but we thank you
that it has never been so.
We thank you that you are constantly with your people, and that you have enabled us to persevere in grace,

You have comforted our hearts,
You have heard our prayers,
You have come so often to our aid.
We pray that you will go with us into this new year.

There is none of us who knows what the new year will hold, but we thank you that every moment of that year is in your hands, and you will be with your people.
We thank you that with that promise girding us, we can go forward with confidence and in your peace. We pray that you will help us to walk with you in this new year better than we have ever done before. Forgive us, Lord, for our sins and our backslidings of this past year.

Grant to us, as the days of the new year unfold, an ever closer walk with you.
Help us to put sin to death,
Help us gladly yield our lives unreservedly to Jesus Christ, our Savior, and God that we may regard ourselves entirely at his disposal to be, to go, to do, as he would wish
We pray that it may be our privilege to serve him,
to bring glory to him, to help others to know him better, and to help some, indeed, to come to know him for the first time.
Have mercy, we pray, upon those connected with us who come to the end of this year and their hearts are still closed against you, still hardening their hearts against you.

Spare them, O God, we pray; spare them! Grant that this new year would mark the beginning of new life in Jesus Christ. We are so thankful for the almighty Holy Sprit, for his limitless power
to bring conviction of sin,
to give new birth,
and to draw those who are away from you
to faith and to repentance.
We pray, Lord, that you would do that in the hearts and lives of all who are upon our hearts.
For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

(from Heart Cries to Heaven by David Campbell)

Unfailing

Poor and Needy

On Ryder's Birthday

Lord, I pray for this boy on his ninth birthday. 

Thank you for him and his ebullient spirit,

for his brilliant mind and tender heart, 

and for his blessedly good health. 

Please continue the good, good work you began in him, 

and for which I prayed at his dedication, 

making him like Enoch, who walked with God; 

like Gideon, who though the circumstances of his birth 

were far from perfect, 

who though his family was of no reputation, 

who though he had many disadvantages in life arrayed against him, 

learned that with God even the smallest can be great;

and making him like David, the man after God's own heart, 

who knew what it was not only to walk with you 

not only to fight and win great battles on your behalf, 

but who also knew how to dance before you. 

Make it so, in this boy's life, 

on today, his birthday, and every day to come. 

Give him and his parents and his sisters

every blessing and every advantage, 

in Jesus' name, amen. 

Shine Forth

Almighty God,
you have poured upon us
the new light
of your incarnate Word:
Grant that this light,
enkindled in our hearts,
may shine forth in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God,
now and for ever.
Amen.

The Day of Joy Returns

The day of joy returns, Father in Heaven, and crowns another year with peace and good will. Help us rightly to remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wisemen. Close the doors of hate and open the doors of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil, by the blessing that Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clean hearts. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our bed with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake, amen. 

(a prayer by Henry Van Dyke; photo by JillWellington via pixabay.com)

Come, Jesus, I Await You

Night has fallen; the clear, bright stars are sparkling in the cold air; noisy, strident voices rise to my ear from the city, voices of the revelers of this world who celebrate with merrymaking the poverty of their Saviour. Around me in their rooms my companions are asleep, and I am still wakeful, thinking of the mystery of Bethlehem.

Come, come, Jesus, I await you. . . .

I am a poor shepherd; I have only a wretched stable, a small manger, some wisps of straw. I offer all these to you, be pleased to come into my poor hovel. I offer you my heart; my soul is poor and bare of virtues, the straws of so many imperfections will prick you and make you weep--but oh, my Lord, what can you expect? This little is all I have. . . . I have nothing better to offer you, Jesus, honour my soul with your presence, adorn it with your graces. Burn this straw and change it into a soft couch for your most holy body.

Jesus, I am here waiting for your coming. Wicked men have driven you out, and the wind is like ice. I am a poor man, but I will warm you as well as I can. At least be pleased that I wish to welcome you warmly, to love you and sacrifice myself for you.

Amen.

(This prayer, written by a young Italian seminarian named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli in 1902 who would later become Pope John XXIII, has become a Christmas Eve tradition for me, and for this blog).

The O Antiphons: O Emmanuel

The O Antiphons: O King of Nations

The O Antiphons: O Rising Sun

The O Antiphons: O Key of David

The O Antiphons: O Root of Jesse

The O Antiphons: O Adonai

The O Antiphons: O Wisdom

O Come

My Soul's a Shepherd Too

The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
My God, no hymn for Thee?
My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds
Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
The pasture is Thy word: the streams, Thy grace
Enriching all the place.

(a prayer by Gerard Manley Hopkins)

In the Bleak Midwinter

In the Process of Your Coming

I’ve begun to understand something I have known for a long time: You are still in the process of your coming. Your appearance in the form of a slave was only the beginning of your coming, a beginning in which you chose to redeem men by embracing the very slavery from which you were freeing them. And you can really achieve your purpose in this paradoxical way, because the paths that you tread have a real ending, the narrow passes which you enter soon open out into broad liberty, the cross that you carry inevitably becomes a brilliant banner of triumph.

It is said that you will come again, and this is true. But the word again is misleading. It won’t really be “another” coming, because you have never really gone away. In the human existence that you made your own for all eternity, you have never left us.

But still you will come again, because the fact that you have already come must continue to be revealed ever more clearly. It will become progressively more manifest to the world that the heart of all things is already transformed, because you have taken them all to your heart.

Behold, you come. And your coming is neither past nor future, but the present, which has only to reach its fulfillment. Now it is still the one single hour of your Advent, at the end of which we too shall have found out that you have really come.

O God who is to come, grant me the grace to live now, in the hour of your Advent, in such a way that I may merit to live in you forever, in the blissful hour of your eternity.

(from Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas; photo by Free-Photos via pixabay.com)

When Seeds are Hidden in the Soil

The feast day of your birth resembles You, Lord 
Because it brings joy to all humanity. 
Old people and infants alike enjoy Your day. 
Your day is celebrated from generation to generation.
Kings and emperors may pass away, 
And the festivals to commemorate them soon lapse. 
But Your festival will be remembered until the end of time. 
Your day is a means and a pledge of peace. 
At Your birth heaven and earth were reconciled, 
Since You came from heaven to earth on that day 
You forgave our sins and wiped away our guilt. 
You gave us so many gifts on the day of your birth: 
A treasure chest of spiritual medicines for the sick; 
Spiritual light for the blind; 
The cup of salvation for the thirsty; 
The bread of life for the hungry. 
In the winter when trees are bare, 
You give us the most succulent spiritual fruit. 
In the frost when the earth is barren, 
You bring new hope to our souls. 
In December when seeds are hidden in the soil, 
The staff of life springs forth from the virgin womb.

(a prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian; photo by Foundry via pixabay.com)

Tiptoe

Lord Jesus,
the day of your nativity approaches,
the day on which we commemorate
your birth,
your condescension,
your humble incarnation.
Please help me and mine
to approach that day
on tiptoe,
with reverence and awe,
mindful of your holiness and beauty,
and grateful for the privilege
of finding
and approaching
and kneeling at
your manger, amen.

In the Whirl

With All My Heart

Path Prayer

Your Eternal Goodness

Come

Like an Ever-Flowing Stream

One Short Hour in Thy Presence

Lord, what a change within us one short hour 

Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make; 

What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, 

What parched fields refresh as with a shower. 

We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; 

We rise, and all, the distant and the near, 

Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear;

We kneel how weak; we rise how full of power! 

Why should we ever weak or heartless be,

Why are we ever overborne with care,

Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,

And joy, and strength, and courage are with Thee?

(a prayer of Richard Trent; image via pixabay.com)

I Have No Idea Where I am Going

(a prayer of Thomas Merton, read by Father Matt, who was a novice at the Abbey of Gethsemani when Merton was novice master)

Table-Turning Savior

My Hedge

Lord, you know I tend to want to “hedge my bets.” 

But you are my hedge. 

I trust in you.

On my best days, at least. 

Help me to trust in you every day. 

(photo by timajo via pixabay.com)