A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 7/7

Photo by Dupont Media World

My first weekend Mass at St. Luke's, Lord!

A new parish, a new church, new customs,
new music, new minsters by my side
and new people in the pew...

For a moment I felt that everything was new -
but I was mistaken...

A new parish but the same Church:
the Body of Christ enfleshed
in the lives of the people of God...

A new church building
but a familiar table
laden with familiar food and drink
and blessed by well known prayers...

New customs, new ways of doing things
but that's just the small stuff
and all the important things
were all in place...

Some new music, some well-known,
all drawing me and God's people
into praise and thanksgiving...

New folks all around me, Lord,
but like those I've known and loved so well,
each one here came with a heart
inscribed with a story of sin and grace,
a story edited, gently,
by your mercy and your peace...

And at the center of everything
there was you, Lord:
the Ancient of Days, forever new,
as old as the everlasting hills,
older than the universe
and yet forever new, forever young...

At the heart of our prayer at St. Luke's
was the breath of your Spirit,
opening us to your voice in the scriptures,
to your presence among us, the food of your life,
given up for us on the Cross
and revealed now in the Bread and Cup of Communion...

For all the ways you bless and keep me, Lord,
for all the ways you smooth my path and steady my step
and for all the ways your Spirit guides through changes,
for all the ways you're ever old, ever new
and ever present,
I give you thanks and praise...

Amen.