NIGHT PRAYER: Sunday 3/29

On Sundays, Night Prayer will focus on an element from the day's celebration of Mass. Tonight we reflect on the second scripture from the Palm Sunday liturgy, Philippians 2:5-11.

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, 

   did not regard equality with God

   something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    coming in human likeness

and found human in appearance,
    he humbled himself,
    becoming obedient to the point of death,
    even death on a cross...

 

I come in prayer tonight, Lord,
    with a heart that needs to be emptied,
    a heart that needs to be filled...

You showed me how, Lord,

    you showed me the way:
you humbled yourself to the Father's will

    you emptied yourself,
and now you invite me

   to humble and empty myself
that I might be filled

    with your mercy, your grace and your peace...

But I don't always find it easy, Lord, 

   to empty myself of the things I want,

the things I want to get and to have,

   to collect, to keep and hold on to...     

Nor is it easy for me to let go:
   the pain I've somehow befriended,

   the self-pity I keep for protection,

   the burdens I cling to for cover

   and the masks I wear for disguise...
 

Help, then, my heart to discern, O Lord,
    what to keep - and what to lose,

    what to treasure - and what to toss...
    what to hold on to - and what to surrender,

    what to save and what needs to be saved

        by your mercy, your grace and your truth...

And as I let go of things that I don't need:
    fill my heart to overflowing, Lord

        with what nourishes and feeds me,
        what strengthens and redeems me

            through the life you surrendered

               and gave for me..  

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

    and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

    and asleep, rest in your peace...

 

Amen.

 

These Alone Are Enough by Dan Schutte

 

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Take my heart, O Lord, take my hopes and dreams.
Take my mind with all its plans and schemes.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

Take my thoughts, Oh Lord, and my memory.
Take my tears, my joys, my liberty.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

I surrender, Lord, all I have and hold.
I return to you your gifts untold.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

When the darkness falls on my final days,

take the very breath that sang your praise.

Give me nothing more than your love and grace.

These alone, O God, are enough for me.

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