Month: December 2007

Fall OnYour Knees

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The One who is to come is born of a woman, Mary. 
His name is above every name.  At his name every knee shall bow  

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy Name!

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!–O Holy Night

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I Hold Your Right Hand

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For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Do not fear, I will help you.”…So that all may see and know, all may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this  –Isaiah 41:13,20 

Father, I abandon myself into Your hands. Do with me what you will.
Whatever You do, I will thank You. I am ready for all.  I accept all.
Let only Your will be done in me, as in all Your creatures,
And I’ll ask nothing else, my Lord.  Into your hands I commend my spirit;
I give it to You with all the love of my heart, for I love You,
Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into Your hands
with a trust beyond all measure, because You are my Father. 

From prayer that asks that I should be sheltered from winds that beat on Thee.
from fearing when I should aspire, from faltering when I should climb higher,
from silk and self, O captain, free thy soldier who would follow Thee. 
From subtle love of softening things, from easy choices, weakenings…
not thus are spirits fortified, not this way went the Crucified…
From all that dims Thy Calvary O lamb of God, deliver me.
 

Give me a love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire.
Let me not sink to be a clod. make me Thy fuel, O Flame of God.-Amy Carmichael

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Sorrow And Sighing Shall Flee Away

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A highway shall be there, And it shall be called the Holy Way….The redeemed shall walk there.And the ransomed of the lord shall returnAnd come to Zion with singing;Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away–Isaiah 35:8-10

 Speak then, Lord, for your servant listens, for you have the words of eternal life.  Speak to me to comfort my soul and to change my whole life; in turn, may it give you praise and glory and honor, forever and ever.  Amen.  -Thomas a Kempis

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Advent-Preparing Our Hearts For Christ’s Return By Serving The Poor

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In view of Christ’s coming in Bethlehem and his coming at the end of history, we should prepare our hearts and commit ourselves to help the poor. 

Those who, in the Biblical phrase, would save their lives – that is, those who want to get along, who don’t want commitments, who don’t want to get into problems, who want to stay outside of a situation that demands the involvement of all of us – they will lose their lives.   What a terrible thing, to have lived quite comfortably, with no suffering, not getting involved in problems, quite tranquil, quite settled, with good connections politically, economically, socially, lacking nothing, having everything.  To what good?  They will lose their lives.  “But those, who for love of me, uproot themselves and accompany the people and go with the poor in their suffering and become incarnated and feel as their own the pain, the abuse – they will secure their lives, because my Father will reward them.”—Oscar Romero  

Lord guide me in the path of righteousness.  Teach me justice,give me a heart for the poor, save the children of the needy,and break the back of the oppressor.  –adapted from Psalm 72:1-4

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The Door At Which A Man Must Knock

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 Knock and the door will open—Luke 11:9

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.  Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.  It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives man the only true life.  It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.  Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: ‘ye were bought at a price’, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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He Took Our Place

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What I would have settled for You have blown so far away what you brought me to I thought I could not reach,–in the intentions of God we find that where we would have settled, He moves us far beyond.  Where we would have failed, He took our place.-Rich Mullins  

I thank you that you Lord, that you have answered me and have become my salvation.  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!-Psalm 118:21, 26a

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A Simple Prayer

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Thank you for hearing my prayer, O God;
and listening to the words of my mouth—Psalm 54:2

I am, O God, a jumbled mass of motives.
One moment I am adoring you, and the next I am shaking my fist at you. 
I vacillate between mounting hope, and deepening despair. 
I am full of faith, and full of doubt.I want the best for others,
and am jealous when they get it.
Even so, God, I will not run from your presence. 
Nor will I pretend to be what I am not. 
Thank you for accepting me with all my contradictions.  Amen.
-Richard Foster

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Advent: He Will Come And Save You

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Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
He will come…
He will come and save you!—Isaiah 35:4 

Lord, help me to prepare for the coming of your Son.  May he find me waiting and watching in joyful anticipation.Through Christ, I pray.—Robert Webber  

Lord Jesus Christ, as I await your coming show me your ways,Teach me your paths.  For you are the God of my salvation.On you I wait all the day.—adapted from Psalm 25:4-5

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Seamless Garment of Silence

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There is a contemplative in all of us, almost strangled but still alive,who craves quiet enjoyment of the Now,and longs to touch the seamless garment of silence which is able to make us whole-Alan P Tory 

Search your hearts and be silent.-Psalm4:4

 

The beginning of prayer is silence.  If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks.  And to be able to see that silence and to hear God we need a clean heart; for a clean heart can see God, can hear God, can listen to God; and then only from the fullness of our heart can we speak to God.  But we cannot speak unless we have listened, unless we have made that connection with God in the silence of our heart.-Mother Theresa

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