Monday, March 9, 2015



March 10, 2015

Psalm 51
Create a clean heart for me, God;
    put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!
Please don’t throw me out of your presence;
    please don’t take your holy spirit away from me.
Return the joy of your salvation to me
    and sustain me with a willing spirit.




Empty Me

Gracious and Holy One,
          Creator of all things
                        and of emptiness,
I come to you
           full of much that clutters and distract,
                         stifles and burdens me,
                                       and makes me a burden to others.

Empty me now
           of gnawing dissatisfactions,
                         of anxious imaginings,
                                        of fretful preoccupations,
           of nagging prejudices,
                         of old scores to settle,
                                         and of the arrogance of being right.

Empty me
           of the ways I unthinkingly think of myself as powerless,
                         as a victim,
                                          as determined by sex, age, race,
                                                           as being less than I am,
                                                                            or as other than yours.

Empty me
            of the disguises and lies
                        in which I hide myself from other people
                                          and from my responsibility
                                                            for my neighbors and for the world.

Hollow out in me a space
           in which I will find myself,
                         find peace and a whole heart,
                                           a forgiving spirit and holiness,
                                                            the springs of laughter,
           and the will to reach boldly
                        for abundant life for myself
                                           and the whole human family.




Ted Loder.  Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle.  Augsburg Books.  1981.

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