Seeing All Things

There are so many places and things designed to help us see, and so much to see in our world. We see a nation divided and people spent with inequality. We see too, small acts of kindness and generosity, the changing of the seasons, and hope in what can be bought and what can be won. And yet, for all that we see, we often miss so much. So, together, let us pray with and for one another a prayer to see the unseen, adapted from John Ballie. Pray with us…

Glory to you, O Lord my King! In love and awe we greet you this day which you have gifted! We give you praise and love and loyalty, O Lord most high!

Help us, Father, not to let our thoughts today be wholly occupied by the world’s passing show. In your loving kindness you have given us the power to lift our minds to contemplate the unseen and eternal; help us not to remain content only with what we see and feel, here and now. Instead grant that each day may do something to strengthen our grasp on the unseen world and our sense of the reality of that world. And so, as the end of our earthly life draws ever nearer, bind our hearts to the holy interests of that unseen world, so that we may not grow to be a part of these fleeting surroundings, but instead grow more and more ready for the life of the world to come.

O Father, you see and know all things. Give us grace, we pray, to know you so well and to see you so clearly that in knowing you we may know ourselves completely as you know us; and in seeing you we may see ourselves as we really are before you. Give us today a clear vision of our lives in time as it appears in your eternity. Show us our own smallness and your infinite greatness. Show us our own sin and your perfect righteousness. Show us our own lack of love and your exceeding love. Yet in your mercy show us also how, small as we are, we can take refuge in your greatness; how, sinful as we are, we may lean upon your righteousness; and how, loveless as we are, we may hide ourselves in your forgiving love. Help us today to keep our thoughts centered on the life and death of Jesus Christ our Lord, so that we may see all things in the light of the redemption which you have granted to us in his name. Amen.

For the Church VIII

This week, as we lament in preparation for peace, we pray for our city in a prayer for the church. Let us join together through these words adapted from Ernest Campbell.

Hear us now, O Father, as we pray for Dallas, Texas; praying for it, not from without, as though its dust and noise and pain were beneath us or beyond us, but from within, as your church, as those who know its squeeze and take to heart its burned-out hopes and embedded divisions.

Grant that fences that keep potential friends apart may be fashioned into bridges so that the hurts of any may concern all.

Help us to look for you and find you in the lives we live and the work we do.

O God, for whom all time and place are your habitation, be our God for we would be your people.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Personal Lament

Knowing that life is not all it can be, recognizing our contribution to the shortcomings, and inviting our Father who desires more for us (and says it is ours already), is the foundation of lament. This week, in light of the Sermon on the Mount and our nation's anxious state and our ruptured and juvenile relationships, let us personally lament together. Pray with your faith family; these words adapted from John Baillie.

Holy Father, we have dedicated our souls and lives to you, yet we lament before you that we are still so inclined to sin and so reluctant to obey:

So attached to what makes us feel good, so neglectful of spiritual things;

So quick to gratify our bodies, so slow to nourish our souls;

So greedy to present delight, so indifferent to lasting blessing;

So fond of being lazy, so unprepared for work;

So soon to play, so delayed at prayer;

So quick to look after ourselves, so slow to look after others;

So eager to get, so reluctant to give;

So confident in our claims, so low in our performances;

So full of good intentions, so unwilling to fulfill them;

So harsh with those around us, so indulgent with ourselves;

So eager to find fault, so resentful when others find fault with us;

So unfit for great tasks, so unhappy with small ones;

So helpless without you, and yet so unwilling to be tied to you.

O merciful Father, forgive us yet again. Hear this sad account of our failings and in your great mercy blot it out of your memory. Give us faith to lay hold of your perfect holiness and to rejoice in the righteousness of Christ our Savior. Grant that resting on his goodness and not our own we may become more like him, so that our will may be united with his, in obedience to yours. All this we ask for Jesus’ holy name’s sake. Amen.

Heaven Cares

We’ve talked quite a bit about ‘saltiness’ and being ‘light’ these last couple of months. And while too much repetition can dull the senses, let us risk one more prayerful reflection for the sake of the church. This week, we join together in praying that whatever might dilute the tanginess of a life lived out of love and whatever might press us to hide away the lamp of good works would be overcome by heaven’s care. Let us pray together these words adapted from Ernest Campbell.

As we look to the world within we are prompted to lay our many needs before you Father. In the brilliance of our Savior’s birth, his entrance into our dim world, we ask for power to overcome whatever in us runs counter to his love, and for courage to be loyal to the light he came to share.

May his lowliness curb our status-seeking,

his humility melt away our pride,

his purity condemn our lust,

his love for people shame the love we waste on things and ideas,

his sense of mission challenger our aimlessness and steady our passions.

Give us feeling for those whose lot in life is harder than our own, and a particular concern for those who live and dies as though Christ has not come, who do not know at the heart of things love reigns, and heaven cares.

All this we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer for Heart

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes directly to the heart of what keeps us from experiencing the fullness of the realities inherent in our Father’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, namely, our heart. So this week, we join together in prayer for a heart in-beat with our Father’s through these words adapted from John Bailie.

Let’s pray.

O Father, you are the only origin of all that is good and fair and true; to you we lift up our souls.

O Father, send your Spirit now to enter our hearts.

Now as we pray this prayer for ourselves and one another, do not let any room within us be secretly closed to keep you out.

O Father, give us the power to pursue only what is good.

Now as we pray this prayer for ourselves and one another, banish any evil purpose or plan that lurks in our hearts waiting for an opportunity to be fulfilled.

O Father, bless all our plans and work, and help them to prosper according to your will.

Now as we pray this prayer for ourselves and one another, do not let us hold on to any plan that we dare not ask you to bless.

O Father, give us purity of heart, a single-mindedness, and meekness.

Now as we pray this prayer for ourselves and one another, do not let us say to ourselves secretly, ‘But not yet’ or ‘But not too much.’

O Father, bless every member of this faith family.

Now as we pray for ourselves and one another, do not let us harbor in our hearts any jealousy, bitterness, or anger toward one another.

O Father, bless our enemies and all those who have done us wrong.

Now as we pray for ourselves and one another, do not let us cherish in our hearts the intention to pay the back as soon as we get an opportunity.

O Father, let your Kingdom come on earth.

Now as we pray for ourselves and one another, do not let us still intend in our hearts to devote our best hours and years to the service of lesser goals.

O Holy Spirit of our Father, as we finish this time of prayer for ourselves and one another, do not let us return to evil thoughts and the ways of the world, but let the same heart be in us that was in Christ Jesus, our LORD. Amen.

For the Church VII

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the ‘blessed’ (already happy) is their mercy. This predilection for responding to human need in a way that leads to healing and forgiveness flows from their hunger and thirst to live rightly with God and neighbor (Matt. 5:6-7). For our greatest and most repeated need within our relationships is wholeness through forgiveness. More than civility or even kindness, our personal and societal relationships require that we seek the forgiveness of our debts (our sin) as we forgive our debtors (sins against us). Such is the way Jesus taught us to pray (Matt. 6:12, Lk. 11:4).

Knowing that the merciful are such because they have received mercy, let us pray for the church “A Prayer of Forgiveness,” penned by April Thomas and printed in Latisha Morrison’s “Be the Bridge” (121).

God, we thank you for your Word and everlasting love. Thank you for providing us a clear path to reconciliation, one that builds bridges, closes gaps, and showcases your plan for us all.

There is so much strife and conflict attempting to distract us from who you are, closing our minds and hardening our hearts against one another. We pray we are loosened from the chains of unforgiveness and that our hearts are softened toward one another so our journey forward together as your children will be victorious.

Help us to see your love in one another and strengthen our desire for community and oneness in you. Open our ears to listen to the stories of those around us so that we may better understand one another. Help us to release negative thoughts and ideas about others, even if there are past hurts, and to forgive.

Thank you for forgiving us and fiercely loving us even when we have chosen to turn our backs on you. It is only by your grace we are able to walk this path.

In your Son’s name, amen.

Direction & Consolation

The rhetoric and incivility of this week’s so-called “debate,” testify to our need for something more. For consolation because of the deplorable state of our nation’s leadership, and for those who suffer most because of its depravity. For direction for a way forward, something other than what we see on screens and hear from hubris. We need most desperately the comfort and command of our Father. And we, his children, to be what we are in Him, salt and light like the Son.

So we pray. We pray for direction and consolation and Christ-likeness together, through these words adapted from Earnest Campbell.

Father of all the families on earth, busy with every human being, believing in us more fully than we dare believe in ourselves,

grant us what we need to live more like Jesus:

a quiet mind,

a forgiving spirit,

indifference to wealth,

a humbler estimate of self,

a readiness to pray,

a clear vision of your purposes,

courage to do the right we know.

Command and comfort us, Father, for we need both direction and consolation. Then shall our order lives confess the beauty of your peace on earth as it is in heaven.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Church VI

Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The “earth” which we live has a name, Dallas. In Jeremiah 29, God says to his people that the way they go about living should be in the city, for the city, because in their blessed living so too would the city be blessed. So this week we pray that our [the Church] wills and actions would match our heavenly Father’s for this particular place on earth. Let us join together in these words adapted from Ernest Campbell,

We pray today for Dallas:

a microcosm of the ailments and aspirations of the world;

a representative sampling of Western culture at its best and worst;

emblematic of your Church’s strength and weakness;

an ordeal for many, a delight for some.

Raise us as a people, gracious Father, into a community in which the welfare of one becomes the concern of all. May we se our differences as assets rather than liabilities, occasions for growth rather than grounds for tension. Out of teeming multitudes grant that a new breed of humanity may surface for whom the common good will inspire nobler and more just forms of public service.

Bless the leaders of our city with decision-making wisdom and an irrevocable commitment to the equitable construction and enforcement of law. Help us as members of Christ’s body to more effectively relate our faith to life as it is lived in our city. Make us bearers of hope, champions of justice, and agents of reconciliation.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

His Kingdom Come

You and I wake into a world in which God rules. A world in which, despite the apparent evidences, is spinning not out of control, but instead is flowing towards a certain future. The kingdom of heaven in which we enter, is a life of intimate purpose, and humble submission. Let us join together through the adapted words of John Baillie to pray for His kingdom to come and will to be done in and through our faith family this week…and beyond.

Our Father in heaven, you are the hidden Source of all life. Help us today, and throughout the week, to meditate on your great and gracious plan that mere mortals like us should look up to you and call you Father.

In the beginning you, the uncreated, released your creative power;

And then space and time and matter;

The atom and the molecule and crystalline forms;

The first germ of life;

And then the long upward striving of life;

The things that creep and fly, the animals of the forest, the birds

of the air, the fish of the sea;

And then the gradual down of intelligence;

And at last the making of human beings;

The beginning of history;

The first altar and the first prayer.

O hidden love of God, it is your will that all created spirits should live forever in pure and perfect fellowship with you. Grant that in our life today and this week, that we may do nothing to defeat this, your most gracious purpose. Help us to keep in mind that your whole creation is groaning in labor pains as we wait for the revealing of the children of God to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the city on hill; and let us welcome every influence of your Spirit upon our spirits that may make this happen more speedily.

When you knock on the door of our hearts, may we never keep you standing outside, but welcome you in with joy and thanksgiving. May we never harbor anything in our hearts that we would be ashamed of in your presence; may we never keep a single corner closed to your influence.

Do what you will with us, O Father; make of us what you will, change us as you will, and use us as you will, both now and in the larger life beyond;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Church V

The apostle Paul talks about the church as an amalgamation of a variety of parts and giftings which come together to be one body of Jesus. This coming together has been the proverbial “thorn in the flesh” or Christ’s body as far back as stories go. While the pang for unity without uniformity is a persistent pressure, it has also been a primary prayer of Jesus’ for us (see Jn. 17), and the faithful for one another. So this week, at a time when our society is emphasizing our division, let us join with Ernest Campbell in this prayer for the Church to find harmony. For our sake, and, the sake of our city and nation and world.

Our Father who has willed a variety of gifts in the one body of your Son, your church, hear us.

Hear us as we pray for a more productive fusion of insights and abilities among your people;

guard us against wasteful rivalries and unwarranted divisions

to the end that each may rejoice in the gifts and talents of the other

In particular, we pray that white and black, democrat and republican, male and female, sisters and brothers may march together as beneath one banner in the spirit of mutual trust and interdependence.

Whatever the nature of our work, help us, Father, to do it unto you.

Let our shops and offices, our schools and factories, our streets

and homes feel the influence of Christ through us.

Use our assorted skills and aptitudes in the manner of a

conductor with an orchestra, calling out this instrument,

then that; this section, then another, to offer their best in a

grand performance of the work at hand.

Tune us to your will, and harmonize us with each other and with you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

All We Need Is Jesus

Remembering who God is for us, especially through the Son, is pivotal to enduring faith. So together we pray that we and our sisters and brothers would find all we need in Jesus through this prayer adapted from John Ballie. Let us pray…

O God, immortal, eternal, invisible, let us remember with joy and thanksgiving all that you have been to us:

Companion of the brave;

Supporter of the loyal;

Light of the wanderer;

Joy of the pilgrim;

Guide of the pioneer;

Helper of all whose work is heavy;

Refuge of the brokenhearted;

Deliverer of the oppressed;

Relief of the tempted;

Strength of the victorious;

Ruler of rulers;

Friend of the poor;

Rescuer of the perishing;

Hope of the dying.

Give us faith now to believe that you can be all in all for each of us, according to our need, if only we renounce all proud self-dependence and put our trust in you.

Forbid it, O Father, that the sheer difficulty of honoring you in our lives should ever tempt us to despair or give up trying. May we always keep in our minds that this human life was once divinely lived; that this world was once nobly overcome; and that this physical body, which so sorely troubles us now, was once made into your perfect dwelling place.

Show your loving kindness today and this week, O Father, to all who are in need of your help. Be with the weak to make them strong and with the strong to make them gentle. Cheer the lonely with your company and the distracted with your solitude. Prosper your Church in the fulfillment of its mighty task, and grant your blessing to all who have worked hard today and this week in Christ’s name.

Amen.

For the Church IV

Among the prophet Isaiah’s messianic visions is a picture of God’s people, the church, as a house of prayer. Writing in unison with the LORD, Isaiah says,

“the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,

to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,

to be his servants…

…even these I will bring to My Holy Mountain

And make them joyful in My House of Prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be

acceptable on My altar;

For My house will be called a house of prayer for

all peoples.”

(Isaiah 56:6-7)

Through the image of ourselves that the LORD paints for us in Isaiah, we pray for the church today with these adapted words from Ernest Campbell. Let us pray together,

Here, together, in this house of prayer, we pause to pray for ourselves, for the church.

Some of us carry a brokenness inside too deep for telling.

Some of us are madly in love with a past that can never be again.

Many of us are tired of trying to sustain the image of a self that no longer exists—or never did.

Not a few of us have grown hard and unmannerly from battling social wrongs, and we want to be civil again.

Others—more — of our number have become worldly wise and sophisticated at the expense of neglected prayer and a seldom-opened Bible, and we yearn to feel that oneness with you which marked our earlier years.

O Father whose name we bear,

you have loved us; love us still—

until our conflicts are resolved,

our imbalances are corrected,

and our sins, which are many, lose their appeal for us before

the beauty of your righteousness.

All this we pray in faith and with thanksgiving,

through Jesus Christ our LORD. Amen.

Calling Creation to Mind

Living and working in the city, a place full of human crafted splendor as well as squalor, can dull our senses to the grounding truths and cultivated compassions of the Creator’s crafting. But it does not have to be so. Though we may be far from the grandeur of the mountains or the majesty of the sea, though we may be shaded by skyscrapers and marveled by masses, we are near enough to the Creator’s work to be steadied and compelled by it. At least that is what we will be praying with and for one another using these words adapted from John Ballie.

Creator Spirit, who forever hovers over the lands and waters of earth, enriching them with forms and colors that no human skill can copy, give us today the mind and heart to rejoice in your creation.

Forbid that we should walk through your beautiful world with unseeing eyes;

Forbid that the attractions of the city and its stores and steel, its promises and playthings, should ever steal our hearts away from the love of open fields and green trees;

Forbid that under the low ceiling of office or classroom or workspace or study, we should ever forget your great overarching sky;

Forbid that when all your creatures greet the morning with songs and shouts of joy, we alone should wear a grumpy and sullen face;

Let the energy and vigor which in your wisdom you have infused into every living thing stir within in our being today, so that we may not be lazy or mindless bystanders among your creatures.

And above all, give us grace to use these beauties of earth around us and this eager stirring for life within us to lift our souls from creature to Creator, and from nature to nature’s God.

O Father, your divine tenderness always outsoars the narrow loves and kindness of earth. Grant us today a kind and gentle heart toward all things that live. Help us to take a stand against cruelty and misuse of any of your creatures and created things. Help us to be actively concerned—as you are—for the welfare of little children, and those who are sick, and of the poor, and those who suffer indignity by laws and by individuals, remembering that what we do for the least of these brothers and sisters of Jesus, we do for Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Church III

The body of Christ, as we have confessed routinely, is a work in progress! We are a mixed bag that seems at times to contradict itself, struggling to be faithfully present while in-step with our storied past. Aware of our polar tendencies that vary by the day and place and people, let us pray together “for the church” with this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell.

We pray, Father, for your church, scattered far and wide:

clinging to old ways in a new day, or else rushing to embrace the new in reckless abandon of the past;

here suffering from battle fatigue, there afflicted with inertia;

at times embarrassed by its Galilean accent, at other times so thoroughly assimilated to the surrounding culture as to lose all distinctiveness;

in some instances foolishly competitive, in others superficially merged around shallow affirmations;

often given to deeps uninterpreted by words, more often given to words unaffirmed by action.

Bless your church, Father, with divine guidance and direction,

that in the thick of life,

and at those points where people hurt,

we may be your servant people.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Daring to Pray

Distinguishing between want and need is no simple task for us humans. Perhaps that is why Jesus taught us to pray the way he did, focusing our attention on the will and way of the Father before getting into our daily details. In the same vein, we dare pray together this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell.

We pray now, gracious Father, for our needs, insofar as we can distinguish what we need from what we want.

We want friends; we need deliverance from overweening pride and playing the comparison games that puts others off.

We want light; we need discipline to sustain the search for truth amid the chaotic noise of our moment.

We want peace; we need patience and courage for that which makes for peace.

We want excitement; we need victory over distractions and artificial stimulants, and the character to face life as it is.

We want love; we need fidelity, the only context in which authentic love can flourish.

Destroy what is evil in us, O Father, and incline our hearts toward good.

All this we dare to pray,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

For the Church II

Eugene Peterson once described “the church,” a community of faith as “the least utilitarian grouping of persons on earth, and its essential nature less self-evident than any other category of persons.” We, “the church,” are a mess of an amalgamation, especially when it comes to effective participation in seeing “His kingdom come, His will done on earth as it is in heaven.” Which is all the more reason we should pray for “the church,” our faith family, and the family of our Father throughout our city, nation, and world.

Let’s join one another today in doing just that, through this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell.

Hear us, Father, as we pray for the Holy Catholic Church, your church:

proclaiming a better gospel than is ever lived;

panicked by the boisterous winds of change that whistle through its ranks;

aping the world in its dependence on wealth and pretentious plans, invoking the skills of online marketing to sell the Via Dolorosa;

ashamed at times of its beginnings: the cup, the cross, the towel;

and yet nevertheless the community of grace, loved and kept by YOU.

Give to your church, Father, the courage that comes from knowing

that Christ means to win that for which he died;

the faith that comes with the hearing of your Word;

the commitment to service that is born and nourished in communion with you;

the quality of life that comes when the cost of apprenticeship is

declared and the spirit-strengthened rise up to answer, ‘Yes.’

Revive your church, O Father.

Revive your church through us, we pray.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Keeping Faith Afloat

“The pandemic has taken a lot from us.” This phrase uttered by a godly woman in our faith family expressing her own heart could have been voiced by many of us. There is much that we have lost in this time: security, certainty, ability to avoid brokenness and injustice, personal interaction, hugs and handshakes, and the like. In the midst of transforming unrest, we join our faith family member in expressing our hearts as well, through these words adapted from Ernest Campbell.

Father, there are times when all that keeps our faith afloat is a sense of gratitude toward you. The headlines of the day beat us down, evil within us and about us lays us open to paralyzing doubt, and conviction leaves us confused. Then we recall your gifts of nature and of grace, and in that recalling, we find the power to go on, to go with you into tomorrow.

We thank you for reason and affection; for our unity with everything that lives and breathes; for poetry that utters what the heart holds; for laments that make our problems your problems; for friendships of long-standing that multiply our joys and temper our disappointments; and for new relationships that open up possibilities of what could be.

We thank you most that we live in dialogue with you; that we have proved prayer real and have known the strength of supporting love in our seasons of apparent defeat.

It is good that human beings should praise your name, and we gladly do it now, together.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For The Church

“the church” is a phrase I hear a lot. It is usually accompanied by a complaint, frustration, or even a deep wound. Sometimes hope and expectation are joined with it, but mostly “the church,”—whatever she may be in a person’s mind—at this moment in history appears to be little more than unmet potential. But what if our disappointment were met with fidelity rather than fodder, with bold meekness rather than defense? Perhaps then, we would be the church we expect and hope.

Let us join together in prayer for “the church,” with these words adapted from Ernest Campbell.

We pray in the unity of faith for the peace and integrity of YOUR church in a time of shattered certainties and seething revolution.

Refresh our memory of storms already past, lest we forget that every temptation that vexes us is common to humanity.

Inspire our theologians and prophets (in pews & pulpits) to search your mind and word with unswerving diligence, and help us to follow them as (and only when) we see them follow you.

Make us big enough to respond constructively and with repentance to those who care enough about the church to criticize. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”

Embolden us to forge new alliances with those writers, pod-casters, and protesters of our day who are one with us in their desire to lament what is broken and hope for what is certain.

So conscious, Father, of what we lack, awaken us to the imperishable worth of what we have:

the Word of life,

the Savior’s presence,

a fatih family of millions,

union with the church above,

and faith so potent that a speck the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain.

We love “the church,” YOUR church, O Lord, and for its good we offer our best.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Becoming Like Jesus

In a time when division is clear and self-assumptions run rampant, let us confess and cling to what is true, that our Father’s desire is for life, not death, unity, not segregation, and meekness not pride. Let us as pray with and for one another this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell, that what we intend and what we choose will indeed be that which allows us to become like Jesus.

O Father, whose will for us is life not death,

forgive us the blindness and perversity that keep us from

choosing life;

help us to act on the truth we know lest we lose it and fall back;

spare us the hypocrisy of assuming that our convictions are

objectively pure while our brother’s or sister’s point of view is slanted

with self-interest;

when our grasp of you is weak, keep firm your hold on us;

when what you are is most hidden from our eyes, help us to

cling to what you command.

May it be our joy and uppermost intention

to rest in you,

to work for you,

to become like you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Remembering What We Have

Our tendency, especially in view of God’s greatness and beauty, is to recognize how much we lack. Couple that with marketing that is consistently telling us that we are lacking and in need of so much more than we have, and its no wonder than many of us often feel wanting, even in the life of promised abundance. So, let us pray with and for one another a prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell to remind us to remember all that we have.

Let’s pray together,

O Father, the source of all things good, grant that we who are inclined to remember what we lack may not forget what we have.

We bless you for the warmth of summer; for lengthened days, green grass, blooming flowers, and all the scents and sounds and colors that declare your creative glory.

We thank you for the interflow of ideas, the sharing of convictions, the ability to receive and infuse hope, and the play of divine truth on the human spirit.

Our highest praise we reserve for you, our Father, whose mercy is the same from age to age, and whose life-giving grace has been declared and pledged to us in Jesus Christ.

Center our far-ranging lives in your eternal love, that in whatever time or circumstance we may know and celebrate and respond with worship and love to your presence.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.