Heavenly Father, I call on you right now in a special way. It is through your power that I was created. Every breath I take, every morning I wake, And every moment of every hour, I live under your power. Father, I ask you now to touch me with that same power: For if you created me from nothing, You can certainly recreate me. Fill me with the healing power of your Spirit. Cast out anything that should not be in me. Mend what is...
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(by Kathryn Belicki) Five years ago I had a remarkable lunch with my friend Linda. It was a tough period for both of us—Linda had cancer and dearly wanted to avoid the prescribed surgery, and so had turned to naturopathic medicine and prayer. I had an undiagnosed neuromuscular disorder and was in the nail-biting “wait and see” period, which would tell whether this was benign or something that would kill me. After...
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Give us grace, O God, to dare to do the deed which we well know cries to be done. Let us not hesitate because of ease, or the words of men’s mouths, or our own lives. Mighty causes are calling us—the freeing of women, the training of children, the putting down of hate and murder and poverty—all these and more. But they call with voices that mean work and sacrifice and death. Mercifully grant us, O God, the spirit of Esther,...
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Once you’ve heard a child cry out to Heaven for help, and go unanswered, nothing’s ever the same again. Nothing. Even God changes. But there is a healing hand at work that cannot be deflected from its purpose. I just can’t make sense of it, other than to cry. Those tears are part of what it is to be a monk. Out there, in the world, it can be very cold. It seems to be about luck, good and bad, and the distribution is...
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Lord, you have taken the fear of death away from us. The end of our life here you have made the beginning of true life. For a little while you will let our bodies rest in sleep, and then with the last trumpet you will wake them from their sleep. You give to the Earth to keep for you this earth of ours, which you shaped with your own hands; and you will take it back again, and from a mortal, formless lump transform it into a thing of...
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