A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: 12/8

(Yesterday's first reading at Mass was the source of the lyrics of the opening vocal piece in Handel's MESSIAH (above in a shorter, contemporary rendering, below in a classical rendition) - and the source for today's Pause for Prayer.)

Comfort me, Lord:
   comfort my soul,
my mind and my heart...

Comfort me in my worries and fears,
   in my memories and dreams
      and in my hopes...

Speak comfortably, Lord, in my family,
   among my friends and neighbors,
   to my colleagues at work
      and to people everywhere...

Speak comfortably to the young and the old,
   in the lives of the lonely and brokenhearted,
      in the brokenness of lives undone, unhinged, unloved...

Speak a word of comfort
   to those who are confused and confounded,
to those who struggle to accept
   the challenges and problems that burden them...

Speak a word of comfort, Lord,
   to those who find it hard to hope,
      those who flirt with despair
   to those who need a sign from you and others
to kindle the fire of hope within their hearts...

Speak a word of comfort
   to those who live with depression
      and to those who love them:
help them be patient with one another
      in giving and receiving care and concern...

Speak a word of comfort, Lord,
   to those in harm's way,
to those on the front lines,
         to all who protect and defend us...

Speak a word of comfort
   to those who live in fear in the city
       or anywhere in their own homes...

Speak a word of comfort to those who need work
   and who live in fear of not finding it...

Speak a word of comfort to the lonely
   to free their hearts to welcome
      the company of those around them...

Speak a word of comfort to the sick, Lord,
   to those in pain in mind and limb:
be the kind Physician of their souls
      to encourage and to heal them with your Spirit...

Speak a word of comfort to the dying
   and refresh their trust and hope in you
      and in the life you promise, life for ever...

Speak a word of comfort to those who mourn, Lord,
   to those whose grief darken sunny days,
      whose hearts are heavy in the midst of others' joy...

Speak a word of comfort to those who've been abandoned
   by society and government, by family and friends,
      by colleagues and neighbors and by me...

Speak comfortably to those who feel abandoned by the church...

Let your word of comfort heal, console, challenge and strengthen
   the ones left out and cast aside:
let them find a welcome by our side and in our hearts...

Speak comfortably to your people, Lord:
   may your voice and words
      make low the mountains of anxiety and fear,
         make straight the paths of those who've lost their way,
            and make smooth the rough and tumble places
               where we stumble and we fall...

Speak a word of comfort in my prayer, Lord,
   and help me hear and trust it
and taking it to heart,
   let me speak a word of comfort
         to all I know and all I meet
   today and through the week ahead...

Amen.