SPEAKER_04: Blessed be the Lord who forgiveth all of our sin.
SPEAKER_04: God's mercy endureth forever.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made, and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.
SPEAKER_04: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, worthily lamenting our sin and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Holy God, Creator of heaven and earth, holy and mighty, redeemer of the world, holy immortal one, sanctifier of the faithful, holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one God, from all evil and mischief, from pride, vanity, and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred and malice, and from all evil intent.
SPEAKER_04: Saved from curse, from sloth, worldliness and love of money, from hardness of heart and contempt for your word and your laws, from sins of body and mind, from deceits of the world, flesh, and the devil.
SPEAKER_04: Saved deliver us from famine and disaster, from violence, murder, and dying unprepared.
SPEAKER_04: Savior and deliver us.
SPEAKER_04: In all times of sorrow, in all times of joy, in the hour of our death and at the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_04: Savior deliver us by the mystery of your holy incarnation, by your birth, childhood and obedience, by your baptism, fasting and temptation.
SPEAKER_04: Savior deliver us.
SPEAKER_04: By your ministry in word and work, by your mighty acts of power, by the preaching of your reign, saved and deliver us, by your agony and trial, by your cross and passion, by your precious death and burial.
SPEAKER_04: Savior deliver us.
SPEAKER_04: By your mighty resurrection, by your glorious ascension, and by your ascending of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: Hear our prayers, O Christ our God.
SPEAKER_04: Govern and direct your holy church.
SPEAKER_04: Fill it with love and truth and grant it that unity which is your will.
SPEAKER_04: Give us boldness to preach the gospel in all the world, and to make disciples of all the nations.
SPEAKER_04: Enlighten your bishops, priests, and deacons with knowledge and understanding, that by their teaching and their lives they may proclaim your word.
SPEAKER_04: Give your people grace to witness to your word and bring forth the fruit of your spirit.
unknown: Hear us, Socrates.
SPEAKER_04: Bring into the way of truth all who have erred and are deceived.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us, Socrates.
SPEAKER_04: Strengthen those who stand.
SPEAKER_04: Comfort and help the faint-hearted.
SPEAKER_04: Rise up the fallen and finally beat down Satan under our feet.
SPEAKER_03: Hear us, Socrates.
SPEAKER_04: Give the leaders of the nations into the ways of peace and justice.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us, Silver.
SPEAKER_04: Give your wisdom and strength to Joe, the President of the United States, Greg, the governor of this state, and Sale the mayor of this city, that in all things they may do your will for your glory and the common good.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us, suffer us.
SPEAKER_04: Give to the Congress of the United States, the members of the President's Cabinet, those who serve in our state legislature, and all others in authority the grace to walk always in the ways of truth.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us, Supreme.
SPEAKER_04: Bless the justices of the Supreme Court, and all those who administer the law, that they may act with integrity and do justice for all your people.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us, Sekrist.
SPEAKER_04: Give us the will to use the resources of the earth to your glory and for the good of all.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us, Supreme.
SPEAKER_04: Bless and keep all your people.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us, comfort and liberate the lonely, the bereaved, and the oppressed.
SPEAKER_04: Keep in safety those who travel and all who are in peril.
SPEAKER_04: Heal the sick in body, mind, or spirit, and provide for the homeless, the hungry, and the destitute.
SPEAKER_04: Guard and protect all children who are in danger.
SPEAKER_04: Shower your compassion on prisoners, hostages and refugees, and all who are in trouble.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us, forgive our enemies, persecutors and slanderers, and turn their hearts.
SPEAKER_04: Hear us as we remember those who have died, and grant us with them a share in your eternal glory.
SPEAKER_03: Hear us, Sacrist.
SPEAKER_04: Give us true repentance.
SPEAKER_04: Forgive us our sins of negligence and ignorance and our deliberate sins.
SPEAKER_04: And grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to your word.
SPEAKER_04: Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.
SPEAKER_01: Let all the inhabitants of the land quake.
SPEAKER_01: For the day of the Holy God is coming, it is near.
SPEAKER_01: Yet even now, says the Holy One, return to me with all your hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with lamenting.
SPEAKER_01: Tear your hearts and not your clothing.
SPEAKER_01: Return to the Holy One, your God, for God is gracious and loves as a mother, slow to anger, and abounds in faithful love, and reluctant to impose harm.
SPEAKER_01: Who knows whether God will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind?
SPEAKER_01: For a grain offering and a drink offering to the Holy One, your God.
SPEAKER_01: Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast.
SPEAKER_01: Call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even breastfeeding babies.
SPEAKER_01: Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her canopy.
SPEAKER_01: Between the portico and the altar, let the priests of the ministers of the Holy One weep.
SPEAKER_01: Let them say, Spare your people, O Holy One, and do not offer your heritage as a mockery, a byword among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Why should it be said among the peoples?
SPEAKER_01: Where is their God?
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Holy One has done great things.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, O animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green, the tree lives up its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their riches.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_01: The psalm for today, Psalm 90, we will read responsibly by the half verse.
SPEAKER_01: Mother of the mountains, you have been our refuge, from one generation to another.
SPEAKER_01: Before the mountains were born, where you writhed the land and the earth into birth, from age to age, you are God.
SPEAKER_01: You turn mortal flesh back to the dust and say, Turn back, you who are woman-born.
SPEAKER_01: For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.
SPEAKER_01: You sweep them aside, they are an illusion.
SPEAKER_01: In the morning, flourishing, and in the evening wilting and withering.
SPEAKER_01: In the morning it is green and flourishes.
SPEAKER_01: In the evening it is dry up and withered.
SPEAKER_01: For we are consumed in your displeasure.
SPEAKER_01: We are afraid because of your wrathful indignation.
SPEAKER_01: Our iniquities have set before you, and our hidden sins in the light of your countenance.
SPEAKER_01: When you are angry, all our days are gone.
SPEAKER_01: We bring our years to an end like a sigh.
SPEAKER_01: The span of our life is seventy years, perhaps in strength, even eighty.
SPEAKER_01: Yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow, for they pass away quickly, and we are gone.
SPEAKER_01: So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The last Adam became a spirit that gives life.
SPEAKER_00: But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: The first human was from the earth, dust.
SPEAKER_00: The second human is from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: As was the one of dust, so are those who are of dust, and is the one of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Just as we have borne the image of the one of dust, we will also bear the image of the one of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus said now, beware of practicing your justness before other people, in order to be seen by them.
SPEAKER_04: Surely lest you have no reward from your Creator in heaven.
SPEAKER_04: So when you give alms, do not trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, in order that they may be praised by other people.
SPEAKER_04: Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
SPEAKER_04: But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, in order that your alms may be secret, and your Creator who sees in secret will reward you.
SPEAKER_04: And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order that they may be seen by other people.
SPEAKER_04: Truly I tell you, they have received their recompense.
SPEAKER_04: But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Creator who is in secret, and your creator who sees in secret will reward you.
SPEAKER_04: And when you fast, do not be sullen like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces in order to show other people that they are fasting.
SPEAKER_04: Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
SPEAKER_04: But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, in order that your fasting may be seen, not by others, but by your creator who is in secret, and your creator who sees in secret will reward you.
SPEAKER_04: The Gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_04: One of my Baptist colleagues this afternoon texted me, Happy Ash Wednesday, question mark.
SPEAKER_04: And it's an interesting thing, right, that we have a tradition of this being a dower day.
SPEAKER_04: And even the readings talk about people disfiguring themselves with their acts of repentance.
SPEAKER_04: But a reminder that Jesus encourages us to avoid doing that.
SPEAKER_04: So there is this tradition that we are dust, and to dust we shall return, and we better get it right, or God will speed that up for us.
SPEAKER_04: But I would like to suggest to you something that one of my teachers at Emray said, which is that repentance is joyful sorrow.
SPEAKER_04: How is it that we avoid being like the hypocrites that we so often are?
SPEAKER_04: It's not that we disfigure ourselves in repentance.
SPEAKER_04: It's that we choose to repent and we do it joyfully.
SPEAKER_04: The world does not need more misery, you know this already.
SPEAKER_04: You know that already.
SPEAKER_04: Rather, this is our opportunity to claim the joy that God has had for us all along.
SPEAKER_04: But for this reason or that, we just chose not to grasp.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus warns us not to practice our acts of justness publicly to be seen by others.
SPEAKER_04: How ironic that we're going to get ashes on our head, which will be seen by others.
SPEAKER_04: It's late enough in the day you'll probably be okay.
SPEAKER_04: The 645 people this morning, you know, actually, that's my preferred time.
SPEAKER_04: Because then you get to walk around with these all day.
SPEAKER_04: And why is that good when the gospel tells us not to practice acts of justness publicly?
SPEAKER_04: Because the world deeply needs not more acts of justice to be seen.
SPEAKER_04: It needs acts of reconciliation and repentance.
SPEAKER_04: And having ashes on our head, of course, is makes us a walking billboard.
SPEAKER_04: And I hope somebody did ask me today.
SPEAKER_04: Usually when you wear one of these collars, people don't ask you anything at all.
SPEAKER_04: But somebody asked me today, why are you doing that?
SPEAKER_04: I don't know what your elevator speech is, but mine often is because the church has made a lot of mistakes, and we choose to do it better.
SPEAKER_04: I've made plenty of mistakes, and I want to do better.
SPEAKER_04: And it's an interesting thing that it's Valentine's Day, and I've mentioned this before, but if you've been married more than two years, and I think that's an important piece of data, if you've been married more than two years, sometimes the best way to say I love you is I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry, God.
SPEAKER_04: Not because I've broken your heart, but because I want to return to you.
SPEAKER_04: I want to return to you, and I want to return to your love.
SPEAKER_04: And I want to enjoy the life you've given me, and I want to be a joy to others.
SPEAKER_04: This, I think, is how we mark our Lenten journey.
SPEAKER_04: And I'll tell you, I'm a runner.
SPEAKER_04: You may be a swimmer, you may be an instrumentalist, you may have done dance, or you may just be a rider.
SPEAKER_04: And the truth is, no matter what it is you enjoy, you have to return to.
SPEAKER_04: And it isn't always fun.
SPEAKER_04: There is discipline in running.
SPEAKER_04: I feel like running about seven days of the year.
SPEAKER_04: I really feel like it.
SPEAKER_04: And I do it anyway because once I get into it, I do find joy.
SPEAKER_04: Even at the worst of the days that is running for me, at the end of the run, I'm glad I did it.
SPEAKER_04: So if we waited until we felt like it, Ash Wednesday might be in July.
SPEAKER_04: It might be in December.
SPEAKER_04: We've chosen this day to be the day we say we're going to do this, and we do it publicly, not to show off, but frankly, because we all need the same thing.
SPEAKER_04: We all need reconciliation.
SPEAKER_04: We all need to lay down burdens we've been carrying for weeks or days or even years.
SPEAKER_04: We need that so that we can enjoy our lives.
SPEAKER_04: And this then is our opportunity.
SPEAKER_04: It's also our opportunity to do this publicly, I think, because that means, number one, we're not alone.
SPEAKER_04: You could put ashes on your head at home.
SPEAKER_04: You could.
SPEAKER_04: There's nothing special about these.
SPEAKER_04: They came from palms.
SPEAKER_04: You could burn your own palms.
SPEAKER_04: We do this in a group so that you know, in the middle of your return to God, and I'm using that on purpose, your return to God, because God's never left you.
SPEAKER_04: In your return to God, you're not alone.
SPEAKER_04: You're not seeing that there were 74 people who drove through today.
SPEAKER_04: But I'm telling you, there were.
SPEAKER_04: You're with Christians all over the world who are saying, We will do this better if we do it together.
SPEAKER_04: And we will do this better if we do it together.
SPEAKER_04: It together.
SPEAKER_04: And not only is there solidarity, there's also accountability.
SPEAKER_04: Now, Joel says something interesting to us, and this is why we read it.
SPEAKER_04: Blow the trumpet in Zion, and that trumpet being mentioned is something called a shofar.
SPEAKER_04: It's how you signal the beginning of a high holy day.
SPEAKER_04: It's an announcement.
SPEAKER_04: The holy day has begun.
SPEAKER_04: But Joel is saying, hey, the church bell or the sanctus bell, instead of hearing that it's time to go to church.
SPEAKER_04: Or there's something special happening at the wine and the bread.
SPEAKER_04: That's supposed to mean, oh my gosh, life is too short for me to live it the way I'm doing.
SPEAKER_04: Because I don't want to miss out on what God has in store for me.
SPEAKER_04: This is not a thing we do to prove to God how faithful we are.
SPEAKER_04: This is not a thing we do to earn God's love.
SPEAKER_04: This is an alarm.
SPEAKER_04: That life is short.
SPEAKER_04: And we have not longed to gladden the path of those who walk with us.
SPEAKER_04: So we ought to make haste to be kind.
SPEAKER_04: We ought to make haste to be gracious.
SPEAKER_04: Because life is too short to live small.
SPEAKER_04: Sure, it's dust, and we're reminded.
SPEAKER_04: We came from the dust, and the dust we will return.
SPEAKER_04: We're reminded of that, and Paul wrote that.
SPEAKER_04: Paul wrote that, hey, actually we have this duality, ORB.
SPEAKER_04: We came from the earth, but we also came from the stars and from the universe.
SPEAKER_04: And this is our opportunity to say, God, as much earth is in me, I'd like to see as much star and light and universe coming out of me.
SPEAKER_04: And with your help, God, I'd like to do something about that the next 46 days.
SPEAKER_04: So this is our opportunity.
SPEAKER_04: It's interesting to think that this is a traditional and antiquated practice.
SPEAKER_04: The Christians have been doing this for a long time, and sometimes we might find ourselves in the rhythm.
SPEAKER_04: But I want you to hear from me, good on you.
SPEAKER_04: Good on you for showing up to say today.
SPEAKER_04: Whatever's on your mind or whatever's on your heart.
SPEAKER_04: Maybe you're giving up Lent for Lent.
SPEAKER_04: Maybe that's your decision.
SPEAKER_04: Maybe you haven't thought hard about it.
SPEAKER_04: And here you are.
SPEAKER_04: Here you are in a place saying, God, I'd like more.
SPEAKER_04: I'd like more.
SPEAKER_04: I'd like to shine more brightly.
SPEAKER_04: I'd like other people to be illuminated by the light that you've put in me.
SPEAKER_04: This is our opportunity.
SPEAKER_04: Our opportunity, frankly, to do something that no politician in this country is willing to do of late.
SPEAKER_04: To say, I might have been wrong.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04: If you want to be more married for more than two years, you better learn how to apologize.
SPEAKER_04: I'd like to be here more than two years.
SPEAKER_04: I've been here nine.
SPEAKER_04: Apologies are often in order.
SPEAKER_04: And I'd like to live with God a whole lot more than two years.
SPEAKER_04: So this is our holy opportunity not to do this with sorrow.
SPEAKER_04: We don't have to do this.
SPEAKER_04: We get to.
SPEAKER_04: And thank you for choosing to do this together.
SPEAKER_04: This journey in faith.
SPEAKER_04: This journey in repentance because we know God can do more than we can ask or imagine whatever we do we don't.
SPEAKER_04: Our prayers today for a holy 46-day journey into Lent.
SPEAKER_04: Dear people of God, the first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection, and it became the custom of the church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting.
SPEAKER_04: This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for holy baptism.
SPEAKER_04: It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sin, had been separated from the body of the faithful and were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to the fellowship of the church.
SPEAKER_04: Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_04: I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting, and self-denial, and by reading and meditating on God's holy word, and to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord in our hearts, if not also our bodies, our Maker and Redeemer.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth.
SPEAKER_04: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and our penitence.
SPEAKER_04: Through Jesus Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: And I invite you during the reading of the psalm to come to the rail, kneeling or standing as your piety and body dictates for the reception of these ashes.
unknown: My sister bright be a good face for the world.
SPEAKER_05: In your great compassion, blow not out my offences.
SPEAKER_05: Wash me through and through from my wickedness of the world.
SPEAKER_05: And cleanse me from my sin.
SPEAKER_05: For I know my transgressions and my sin before me.
SPEAKER_05: Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
SPEAKER_05: So you are justified when you speak and upright in your judgment.
SPEAKER_05: Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth sinner from my mother's world.
SPEAKER_05: For behold, you look for truth deep within us and will make me understand wisdom and purge me from my sin and I shall be pure.
SPEAKER_05: Wash me and I shall be clean and deep.
SPEAKER_05: Make me here of joy and gladness.
SPEAKER_05: That the body you have broken may rejoice.
SPEAKER_05: And blot out all my iniquities.
SPEAKER_05: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness.
SPEAKER_05: Great compassion, brought out my offensive.
SPEAKER_04: God pardons and absolves all those who truly repent, and with sincere hearts believe the holy gospel.
SPEAKER_04: Therefore we beseech God to grant us true repentance and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: Those things may please God which we do on this day, that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to eternal joy.
SPEAKER_04: Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_04: God's not going to give us holy work without giving us nourishment to do so.
SPEAKER_04: So in a few moments, we'll be nourished at God's table.
SPEAKER_04: If you'd like to receive bread, just put your hands out.
SPEAKER_04: The bread you can either dip in the chalice or you can eat and drink directly from the chalice, or you can skip either and receive a blessing.
SPEAKER_04: But please know that all are welcome to be nourished at God's table for whatever journey you find yourself on.
SPEAKER_04: This is the table not of the church, but of God.
SPEAKER_04: It is to be ready for those who seek relationship with God, so come and make this journey.
SPEAKER_04: You who have much faith and you who have little.
SPEAKER_04: You who have been here often and you who have not been in a long time, or ever before.
SPEAKER_04: You who have tried to follow and you who have lost your way, come and make this journey not because I invite you.
SPEAKER_04: God invites.
SPEAKER_04: It is God's desire that we gather here.
SPEAKER_04: Our service continues on page 340 of your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_04: Page 340.
SPEAKER_04: Lift up your hearts.
SPEAKER_03: We lift them also to the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
SPEAKER_04: It is very meet right, and our bound in duty that we should in all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty, everlasting God, who dost bid thy faithful people cleanse their hearts, and prepare with joy for the Paschal feast.
SPEAKER_04: Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we law and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and saying, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: And of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son, Jesus Christ, and take our nature upon him, and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.
SPEAKER_04: He made the air a full, perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and that institute, and in his holy gospel command us to continue, in perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.
SPEAKER_04: For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread.
SPEAKER_04: And when he given thanks to thee, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_04: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_04: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_04: This is my blood of the renewed covenant which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sin.
SPEAKER_04: Do this as often as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make with thee thy holy gifts which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy son hath commanded us to make, having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and looking for his coming again with power and great glory.
SPEAKER_04: We most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and with thy word and Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_04: And we earn thy fatherly goodness to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.
SPEAKER_04: Grant, we beseech thee that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son, Jesus Christ, and be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction.
SPEAKER_04: And also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_04: By whom and with whom and in whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: And now, as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_04: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_04: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: These are the gifts of God, for you, the people of God, feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_04: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty and ever living God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us in these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us, and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people, and are also heirs through the hope of thy everlasting kingdom.
SPEAKER_04: And we humbly beseech thee, O Heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world without end.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Do not pray for easy lives.
SPEAKER_04: Pray to be more deeply rooted in grace.
SPEAKER_04: Do not pray for relentant disciplines equal to your power, but for the courage and nourishment equal to your opportunities.
SPEAKER_04: And the keeping of your discipline will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle.
SPEAKER_04: Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life that has come to you and through you by the grace of God, and the blessing of God Almighty, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you these forty-six days and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.