A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: FRIDAY 12/9


99.44%

Are you old enough to remember this line
from the old Ivory Soap ads?
Ninety-nine and forty-four one hundredths percent pure

Today's Pause for Prayer (below) is about purity: yours and mine...
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In my homily for December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception,
(an audio of my brief homily is at the end of this post)
I focused on the day as a celebration of purity:
the purity of Mary, the Mother of Jesus and of us all.
I looked up synonyms for purity and found that
to be pure is to be:

authentic
bright
natural
total
unalloyed
plain
real
simple
transparent
true
unadulterated
clear
complete
fair
flawless…

Would that these words described me and my purity,
you and your purity...

We all fail in so many ways
in living out this list of adjectives...

While none of us will ever be as pure as the Mother of Jesus
each of us can pray to be more pure than we are just now.

Please listen as I pray and take into your own heart
what belongs to you…

Let's pause and pray…

Lord, help me be pure:
pure in my thoughts
pure in my deeds,
pure in my speech,
pure in my motives,
pure in my intentions,
pure in my relationships,
pure in my imagination,
pure in my desires,
pure in my dreams,
pure in my hopes,
pure in my ambition
pure in my works,
pure in my choices,
pure in my will,
pure in my heart,
pure in my mind,
pure in my vision,
pure in my love of you, O God,
pure in my love of my neighbor,
pure in my love of my self…

That’s a lot of purity.
If it seems too much,
even too much to pray for,
then remember the angel’s word to Mary:
“Nothing is impossible to God.”

Audio for homily