Monday Morning Offering - 147

Coffee in the Morning by George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

Pentecost is past
and my Confirmation was long ago
but I still need your Spirit’s gifts, Lord…

I need wisdom, understanding and right judgment;
I need courage, knowledge and reverence,
I need the gift of awe in your presence, Lord…

So I offer you this morning my need for your gifts
and I pray you'll open them in my heart
to deepen and strengthen my life of faith…

I offer you my need
for the gift of wisdom, Lord,
especially when I'm rash in word and deed,
quick to offer unfounded opinions
and slow to reverence the treasure of tradition…

Help me esteem the wisdom of faith
above any other possession I have or desire…
Give me your wisdom, Lord,
and help me to see as you see...

Lord, I offer you my need
for the gift of understanding:
give me a desire to understand your Word and its truth,
the teachings of the Church and the ways of faith…

When I'm quick to deny and reject,
give me patience to understand and accept...

Help me to see that mine is neither
the only truth nor the greatest…

Keep me humble as I learn, Lord...

I offer you my need
for the gift of right judgment, Lord.
Steep me deeply in your counsel, your word and your wisdom
so that I'm inclined to intuit, know and judge
which way is yours, which word is true, which choice is the good one…

Shape my mind, heart and will, Lord,
in the mold of your goodness,
in the image of your beauty,
in the pattern of your justice…

Soften any hardness in my heart, Lord,
and shape my heart as your own...

Lord, I offer you my need
for the gift of courage...
Give me the courage I lack, the courage I need
to act according to the wisdom, understanding and counsel
your Spirit offers me…

Give me fortitude and follow-through, grit and guts enough
to be true to what I've learned, what I know, what I believe…

Help me to be more mindful of what you ask of me, Lord,
and to pay less attention to what others think of me…

I ask not so much to be brave, Lord,
but simply to be true to you and to myself...

I offer you my need
for the gift of knowledge, Lord...
Strengthened by wisdom, understanding and good counsel,
give me a knowledge of how to weave these gifts
into the fabric of each day's ups and downs, joys and sorrows…

Give me a working knowledge, Lord, of how your word and truth
are part and parcel of the real world, its people and our problems…

Give me the knowledge I need, Lord,
to live and share my faith, day in and day out,
one day at a time…

Lord, I offer you my need
for the gift of reverence.
Give me a heart to worship you out of love, not from fear.

As your servant, it's my duty and obligation to revere you, Lord,
but help my heart want to worship and follow you…

Give m a yearning to do what you ask of me...

With the gift of reverence,
let your wisdom, counsel and courage
weave my worship, will and work as one
so that all I do might be no more than the debt
the beloved gladly owes
and pays to the lover…

Give me a reverence for you, O Lord,
and a heart bent on loving you as you have loved me...

I offer you my need
for the Spirit's gift of awe in your presence, Lord…
Help me want to never offend you, Lord...

Help me believe you're always ready
to help me do what draws me close to you
and to avoid whatever leads me away from you…

Help me trust in your grace to strengthen me
and confirm my hope that you’re always with me:
help me remember that with every step I take
I tread on your holy ground...

I offer you my need for all the Spirit's gifts, Lord,
and pray that I might use them to serve you
and all those whose paths will cross mine
this Monday morning, the rest of this day
and all through this week...

Amen.

(Click here for an archive of Monday Morning Offerings) 


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