A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: TUESDAY 3/27

Holy Week

We have to give ourselves permission
to be weak enough to enter into Holy Week.

Stop pretending that you can hold everything together.
No one is telling you that you have to be strong.

Instead, you need to be real.

You do not need to put on a special face to others
to show you are a Christian.

Stop perpetuating illusions
about the way others tell you to be.

This week is about your relationship with Jesus Christ
and what he needs most is for you to be a real person
– just as you are –
even if you are weak, vulnerable, filled with chaos,
and bombarded by a variety of conflicting emotions.

If this is who you are,
then this is the 'you' Jesus wants to meet
on this journey to the cross."

~ John Predmore, SJ

Pause for Prayer: Tuesday, March 27

Take, O take me as I am.
Summon out what I shall be.
Set your seal upon my heart and live in me...

Take, O take me as I am...
Take me as I am, Lord:
   not as I wish I'd been,
   not as I wish I were,
   not as I wanted to be today,
   not as I hope to be tomorrow
but just as I am today,
   the person who stands before you
   knowing there's nothing about me
   you don't already know...

Summon out what I shall be...
Call forth from me, Lord,
   the person you made me to be.
Call out the gifts and talents you've given me.
Summon to the surface what I fear about myself:
   pardon what needs mercy
   and heal whatever's wounded.
Summon out from deep within
   the person you created me to be...

Set your seal upon my heart and live in me...
With the touch of your gentle hand:
   seal my heart with your love,
   seal my mind with your peace,
   seal my soul with your grace;
and live in me, Lord:
   make your home within me,
   be the housemate of my soul
   to guard and guide me on my way...