“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” —Fyodor Dostoevsky

Have mercy on me, O God, 

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy 

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, 

and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions, 

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned, 

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are justified in your sentence 

and blameless when you pass judgment.

You desire truth in the inward being;

therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

Hide your face from my sins, 

and blot out all my iniquities. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence,

and do not take your holy spirit from me.

God of the ordinary,

we praise you.

You take the drabness of our thoughts,

and brighten them into vivid imagination.

You take our everyday lives,

and transform them into holy, precious moments. 

You take our limited offerings,

and multiply them into an abundance of delight. 

Extraordinary God,

you light up our thoughts, our lives, our selves

with the wonder of your light. We praise you.  Amen.

- prayer adapted from Bare Feet and Buttercups

God with us,

we confess that sometimes we feel like

we have to have some other kind of life to really serve you—

that we have to somehow be paragons of holiness,

that we have to pray for hours a day,

that we have to abandon all our other obligations

if we’re going to really follow Jesus.

Forgive us.

Reassure us.

Remind us it’s not all up to us,

that you’re at work within us,

and that the lives you’ve given us

are sufficient for the work you call us to.

Amen.

Thought for Meditation:

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors!

That the King of glory may come in.

Who is the King of glory?

The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors!

That the King of glory may come in.

That we may see the light of God’s love shining before us.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

--Psalm 27:1

Listen up, everyone!

God has called each of us

It was God who named us.

The light of God’s love shines in us.

“We have what we seek. We don't have to rush after it. It was there all the time, and if we give it time it will make itself known to us.” ―Thomas Merton

“For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning." —T. S. Eliot