A Concord Pastor Comments: NIGHT PRAYER: Sunday 6/7

Words from this morning's mass
are still ringing in my ears and my heart tonight, Lord:
   Mend your ways, encourage one another,
   agree with one another, live in peace,
   and the God of love and peace will be with you.

We need your love and peace, Lord,
we need you to be with us
but there's so much mending to be done,
so many discouraged hearts to be uplifted,
so many disagreements to be resolved,
so many roadblocks to be cleared
for us to live, together, in peace...

The prospects are daunting -
it's almost impossible even to imagine
that such a day might finally dawn
- but I believe it can and I believe it will,
with your help, Lord,
the day we dream and hope for
can and will arrive, but first...

First, Lord, I need to begin
- to mend my ways, Lord,
- to do everything I can do to encourage
     what's just and what must be changed
- to agree with what's factual
     and reject innuendo, gossip and rumor
- to come to terms with the prejudice in my heart
- to recognize the privilege I enjoy and always have
- to acknowledge that I'm largely ignorant
    of the daily experience of people of color
- to confront the temptation to sit back and think
this work is for others, not me...
- to clear my path of what blocks me from
      knowing, learning, appreciating and loving
         cultures beyond my own...

Well... those prospects, my prospects, are daunting, too,
so help me imagine the day will dawn, Lord
- and I believe it can and I believe it will -
when with your help I'll have done my best
to live in peace with everyone,
to live in peace with you...

Protect me this night, Lord, as I lie awake
and watch over me when I fall asleep
that awake, I will keep watch with you
and asleep, rest in your peace.

Amen.

Where Chrarity and Love Prevail

Where charity and love prevail,
there God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
by love are we thus bound.

With grateful joy and holy fear
His charity we learn;
Let us with heart and mind and soul
now love him in return.

Forgive we now each other’s faults
as we our faults confess;
And let us love each other well
in Christian holiness.

Let strife among us be unknown,
let all contention cease;
Be his the glory that we seek,
be ours his holy peace.

Let us recall that in our midst
dwells God’s begotten Son;
As members of his body joined,
we are in Christ made one.

No race or creed can love exclude,
if honored be God’s name;
Our family embraces all
whose Father is the same.