Mistaking

Lord our God,

prevent us, we beg You, of falling victim to appearances,

of mistaking for You
those things which our hands have made,

our hearts have loved, or our minds have thought.

Give us the eye of faith by which to see You,

and blind us to all other things

that resemble You.

Grant us, merciful and loving Lord,

Your forgiveness for our idolatry,

our idealism, ideology, ideas

that we forge to hold You

Who are uncontainable

except by suffering.

Save us, O Lord,

from ourselves

without You.

Be with us,

we cry.

Sorry

Lord have mercy on us!

Without our brother we are lost,
and true are the words handed over to us
by Holy Church,
‘You can be damned alone,
but you cannot be saved alone.’

Teach us to count how few days we have left, Father,
to love and serve You in humility,
loving and serving the people around us,
being sorry for ourselves and them,
for our having offended You.

Give us time to repent,
so that in falling behind we can be found running ahead.

Running after You,
running after Jesus.
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Difficulties

Father,
You alone know all,
You alone know us and all our afflictions,
You prepare a table for us
before the face of these sightless enemies
who cry war when all we want is peace,
and to whom peace is only seeing us
defeated and destroyed.

Help us, Father, in this hour of trouble,
when Your family is in such need of salvation,
yet runs from it into the dark solitude where the evil one,
having despoiled the flock,
seeks the life of Your young ones, caught in his traps.

I can do nothing, Lord.
I can do nothing.
Even my prayer is only a moan,
yet You know my heart,
and let my afflictions drive me into the wilderness,
pursued by accusers shouting out crimes
I have never committed,
so that You alone exist for me.

All that You have given me,
I wanted to give back to You,
but not like this.
I wanted to give You not the one talent You entrusted to me,
but that and even more.
But even what little I thought I had has been taken from me.

Do not let the evil one have the upper hand, Lord.
Do not let him ravage the family You have planted.
Visit us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and dispel the hatred, the doubt, the accusations,
the delusions, the false hopes, the sickness of heart,
the unforgiving memory,
every evil thing that has come to nest like rats
in a forsaken ruin.

Deliver us,
let us call you again ‘our Father’ and deliver us,
from evil,
from the evil one,
from each other and from ourselves.

Let us wake in the morning, filled with Your love, 
and sing and be happy all our days.
Make our future as happy as our past was sad,
those years when You were punishing us,
those years when we were punishing ourselves.

Let Your servants see what You can do for them,
let their children see Your glory.

May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us!
Make all we do succeed.
(Psalm 90:14-17).

Yahweh, do not desert me,
do not stand aside, my God!
Come quickly to my help,
Lord, my Savior!
(Psalm 38:21-22).
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Open our eyes

O God,
how can we whose minds are so unstable
keep our eyes focused on You,
so that we can do
what we see You doing
every day
and all around us?

For You fill our world
at every moment
with creatures
just like us,
falling into need and sin,
or arising out of it
following the call of life
that You’ve planted in us,
though we might not know it.

Your Word has been strewn among us,
seeking that fertile humus in which it can sprout,
grow and eventually bear fruit,
so that it does not return to You void.

Open our eyes, Lord,
to see the world as You see it,
at every moment, in every place
hearts crying out for mercy,
to receive it, but also to bestow it.

Show us, Father,
that we are not alone,
and that to show mercy
can be as humble as yielding to another’s infirmity,
to overlook our brother’s ignorance,
to forgive one who injures or insults us
before, or even without, being asked.

Help us to see
that mercy has no size limit,
large or small, visible or hidden.
It is an arrow that never fails to hit its mark.
That to stand confidently before Your seat of mercy
is to be merciful wherever we are,
just as You are merciful.

And to always pray
what we hear Jesus praying every day,
‘Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing.’
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Your mercies…

…Lord, Your mercies are what fill me with dread. You are not a God who is pleased with wickedness. Boasters collapse under Your scrutiny. But I, so great is Your love, may come to Your House, and before Your holy Temple bow down, in reverence to You.

Your love, Father, upholds all the world. You are not a God who like a watchmaker designs and builds a clock, winds it up, and then leaves it to tick out its time moment by moment while You go away to live Your real life.

You hold us and everything that is, suspended as thoughts in Your mind. You never cease thinking of us, You never cease loving us whom You call the apple of Your eye, You never give up on these thoughts of Yours whom You have endowed with freedom.

The whole world is bathed in Your blazing light, yet we still wander through it unseeing as blind men, thinking and doing deeds of darkness, while You follow us with Your eyes, waiting and watching to catch us when we fall.

Your mercies, Lord, Your mercies are so great, and so great your patience, Your long-suffering love, maintaining and renewing the world by the Word of Your command, that we do not notice, Your mercy is too great for us of small mercy.

I cross myself to confess that I am the reason You ascended the Cross of Your own free will, and I bend down to touch the earth before You to acknowledge that I am but dust, but You raise me up, You raise me up and straighten me when I am most afraid.

Come into Your own, Lord, come among us visibly, reveal Your power, grant pardon to us sinners by Your saving Presence, anoint us with the myrrh of gladness, Saviour of fugitives, for to You, to You alone, do we run, O God our God, hope of all the earth.

Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Spirit Holy, Triad One in essence, Eternal, YHWH, the only lover of mankind. Glory to You.
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A childlike people

Another cool, misty dawn.
I wake up in darkness and offer my morning prayer
to You, Lord, thanking You
beyond what my words can express.
You have saved me, and given me another day.
Whatever is Your will for me today, Lord, let it be done.
Help me to follow You.

There is a covering of grey, translucent clouds hanging low over the city as I drive to work. Crossing the Columbia River, I look eastwards down its course and see the silhouette of Mount Hood, sharply defined against a brightening sky in the sliver of clarity between earth and clouds. It arises from its blankets of fog to greet the morning, its crest almost disappearing again in the waters above the firmament. No wonder the native people venerated the peak as a god, Wy’east, and gave him personality. They were a childlike people.

My thoughts drifted between prayer and memory.

Japan, and the dawn, its sun rising as a red disk against an off-white, cloudless sky. There too, a childlike people invest a mountain with personality, Fuji-sama, as he arises in a gentle slope from the sea, but his peak is high and mighty, also a god, a kami, watching over his islands and his people. Encircling him a host of ordinary mountains like attendants. The dreams of a childlike people, to console them with hopes of what they know not, to allay their fears of what they do know—death.

Father, let these childlike people awaken,
putting off their coverings of myth, to meet Your Son.
The roots of our fears strike deeper than we dream.

Lord, uproot these tares
that Your hands have not planted,
and plant Your true seed in us and in them,
so that we can stand up and see You as You are,
and know that You are with us,
as You promised, even
to the end of the ages.
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A blessing for Riya

Riya, Riya, 
rejoice in the Lord,
in the living God,
the First, the Last,
Who was, Who is,
Who is to come!

The Almighty protect you,
the Maker of heaven and earth provide for you
all things seen 
and unseen!


The Lord, 
the Son of God, call you,
the Light of light show Himself to you,
the Slain before all worlds save you!

Be a blessing to your father, mother and brothers,
be the good earth, receiving the seed of faith,
be a fruitful vine, bearing good fruit for others!

Walk in the Way that does not stray,
go through the Gate that does not close,
stand on the Rock that does not move!

Light for your eyes,
good news for your ears,
beauty in your smile,
a song on your lips,
healing in your hands,
safety in your steps,
life, long and full,
friends sent only by the Lord,
and a thankful heart
be the adornment of God’s child, Riya!

The Lord God bless you out of Zion,
He who made the heavens and the earth!
Amen!
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