Night Prayer: MONDAY 11/9

It's November, the month of All Souls, a season in which Christians pray for the salvation of those who have died.  Our thoughts might turn to what are called the Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven, hell - and  perhaps another: purgatory. An item in today's news - Ross Douthat's interview of Donald Trump - includes all five! While this post was written after I had read the the transcript,  this prayer is not about Donald Trump - it's about each and all of us.  Here's a link to the whole interview and at the bottom of this post, you'll find the portion of the interview relevant to this post.

I guess I can't predict, Lord,

just who or what might prompt me

to reflect on my mortality,

on the finite shelf-life 

    of this frame I call my body,

on the import and the impact

    of my thoughts, words and deeds

        on my eternal future,

on the intimate connection 

    between the person I am

        and who I will forever be...  

Do I think, do I believe,

    do I hope, do I presume 

        that my next home will be heaven?

Is that something I ponder?

    something I pray for?

        something I work towards?

    or is it something

        I take for granted?

(Note to self: 

    resist taking eternal realities for granted!)

 

And with what heart, Lord, 

    do I approach these questions?

Is my heart burdened

    by grudges and resentments?

    bitterness and animosity?

    malice and spite?

    bigotry and prejudice?

    by loathing and disdain?

Is my heart soiled by any of these, Lord?

    even in small ways?

    in ways I dismiss as negligible?  

    in ways I defend and justify

        in my self-righteousness?

 I often pray, Lord, 

    that you'll forgive my trespasses

        as I forgive those 

            who trespass against me...

Will my own prayer 

    render a judgment against me?

What hostility, Lord,

    keeps me from loving my neighbor

from seeing and loving in my enemy

    what you see and love in the same person? 

Which are the relationships, Lord,

    where I withhold the mercy

         I pray you'll offer me,

    where I refuse to love

        and choose instead to hate? 

 

What feelings in my life, Lord,

    do I so stubbornly hold on to

        and so tenaciously embrace  

    that I'm blinded to your word

        and deaf to your command

    that I love, not hate, my neighbor

        even as I love myself?

What ill-will do I so doggedly cling to, Lord,

    that I would jeopardize, that I'd risk losing

        your forgiveness of my sins

    and the heaven that awaits

        those who humbly do your will?

 

It's November, Lord, 

    and I'm praying for those who have died...

Make me mindful of my own mortality,

    of my weaknesses and flaws,

    of my failings and my sins 

and my ever-present, overwhelming need

    for your grace to set me free

of all that keeps my heart

    from loving you, my God

        - and my neighbor as myself...

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. 

 

Tonight's song is a simple and beautiful musical setting of an old prayer of uncertain authorship..

 

Litany of Humility by Thomas Muglia

 

If a video doesn't appear below, click here!

 

 

From the interview...  

ROSS DOUTHAT:  Death. Let's talk about death.

DONALD TRUMP:  Okay. 

DOUTHAT: What do you think happens when you die?

TRUMP: Well, I hope I'm missed. (LAUGH) I hope--

DOUTHAT: No, I mean-- I mean to you-- I mean to-- What do you think happens to Donald Trump when you die?

TRUMP: Okay. You mean where I go?

DOUTHAT: Exactly.

TRUMP: Well, I'm a religious person, so in theory I go to heaven.

DOUTHAT: Do you think you're going to heaven?

TRUMP: I hope so. I don't want to go to hell.

DOUTHAT: So I watched you at Charlie Kirk's memorial service– Erica Kirk, his widow got up - and gave some very moving remarks about Christian forgiveness, how you have to forgive your enemies and your opponents--

TRUMP: That's right.

DOUTHAT: And you followed her, and you said, and I know this was a little bit of a joke but I think facts come through jokes. You said, quote, "I hate my opponents and I don't want the best for them." Let's say you pass away, you're entering the next life, and all you have to do to enter paradise is feel love and forgiveness for James Comey, Nancy Pelosi, anyone who you have expressed hate for over the years. Do you think you can do it?

TRUMP: Well, then I wouldn't be real, would I? I mean, if I said to you, sure, the easy answer to that is "Oh, yes, I could forgive."

DOUTHAT: No, I don't think it's an easy question at all.

TRUMP: I found them to be extremely dishonest people, very bad people, very bad for our country. I love our country far more than I can love people and people like that.

DOUTHAT: Is the answer no then?

TRUMP: The answer is no. I want to be honest, no. I think it would--

DOUTHAT: Before the judgment throne of God?

TRUMP: Before the judgment. No, I think they were very bad people and-- I dislike, I can use the word hate, I do hate some of my enemies. I think they're-- they've been terrible. Look what they've put me through, the weaponization. I got indicted - I got impeached.

DOUTHAT: Mr. President. You have had the most charmed and remarkable life of any American in my entire lifetime, and you are telling me that before the judgment throne of God you couldn't find it in your heart to forgive some of your enemies? After all that's been given to you? Come on. Help me out here.

TRUMP: I mean, it's such an easy answer. All I have to do is say, "Yes, I can."

DOUTHAT: I-- I, again, I don't think it's an easy answer--

TRUMP: Honestly, , can I-- can I be honest--

DOUTHAT: --that's why I asked it. Yes.

TRUMP:  I probably cannot do that, no, because I do hate some of my enemies and I always will.

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