Evening Prayer With Bob

It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. ~ Luke 17:2

Image: Millstone, Dalgarven Mill – Museum of Ayrshire Country Life and Costume in North Ayrshire, Scotland,

And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. " Luke 16:20 (NRSV)

Image: Притча о Лазаре, (Parable of Lazarus), Fyodor Bronnikov

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. Matthew 23:23 (NRSV)

Image: Malheur à vous scribes et pharisiens, James Tissot

No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. ~ Luke 16:13 (NRSV)

Because he is bound to me in love, therefore will I deliver him;

Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found. ~ Luke 15:31-32

Image: Le retour du fils prodigue (The Return of the Prodigal Son), Ossip Zadkine, 1964

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ~ For Those in the Armed Forces of our Country, Book of Common Prayer, p. 823

Image: The Tyne Cot Cemetery in Ypres, Belgium.

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. ~ Luke 14:27

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ~ Prayer for our Enemies, Book of Common Prayer, p. 816

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? ~ Matthew 20: 15

Image: Vineyard Harvest, Micaela Eleutheriade