18th February. 2021. Daily Devotion.
7Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
God my Saviour.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, Lord;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
13 I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:7-11;13-14
Sad could be happy:
‘Hope has two lovely daughters,’ Saint Augustine of Hippo is credited with saying, ‘anger and courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to change them.’ I think if the human body has two wise daughters, then they are loneliness and vulnerability. Loneliness in order to face your true self and vulnerability enough to tell the story to others. The cruelty of our half-lived lives is a false story of connection based on appearance and comparison, and such connections are parasitic on human community. Those connections glue people together with fear, and tell some that they are enough for themselves, that their loneliness and vulnerability are abated. When I was a school chaplain a young person once wrote a prayer for our end-of-the-day service. He wrote it, he read it out, and then threw it in the bin. I fished it out and framed it and hung it on my wall……….’
Dear God. Thank you for putting me on this earth but people can get lonely and I don’t like people being lonely cause sometimes I am and it’s not a good feeling. So I’d like You to pair them up with someone who is not lonely if you can. Amen…….
He read the prayer with such simple truth that I thought I would break. The prayer had a picture at the end of a sad face covered by a raincloud and a happy face in the middle of a sun. Sad could be happy, I understand this to say, or rainy could be sunny. There is such humble conditionality in the structure of the prayer. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard more beautiful usage of the three words ‘If you can’. It’s as if he understands that there are limits to what God can do but there’s no harm in asking. From Padraig O Tuama’s ‘In the Shelter: Finding Welcome in the Here and Now.’
A Prayer for Lent
Father in Heaven, the light of your truth bestows sight to the darkness of sinful eyes. May this season of repentance bring me the blessing of Your forgiveness and the gift of Your light. Grant this through Christ our Lord.Amen.
Benediction
Oh God Almighty, send me Your light and truth, to keep this day and all the days of my life. And may Your mighty hand protect me, and all my brothers and sisters who have joined me in prayer this day, blessing our homes and our lives. Amen.
Coronavirus Prayer
Dear Jesus, you came to show the real meaning of life.
You came to bring forgiveness and healing to a broken world.
By your giving of yourself even to the point of death,
you save us and bring the promise of new life.
May your touch and example embolden us
in facing the challenge of the coronavirus. Amen
