Category: Meditations

Suggested Scripture: John 14: 1 – 14; Psalm 122: 1 – 9

Scripture Emphasis;  Psalm 122:1-2
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go into the house of the Lord!”
And now our feet are standing inside
Your gates, O Jerusalem!

There is one prayer that I beseech Our Heavenly Father to answer as we slowly start to memorialize for posterity, the events that will define us in the New Year dawning.
It is for the blessing, which like, nothing else, would incorporate your expressed wishes to family and friends for a” Happy New Year.” This blessing will make hearts throughout our world happy, and thereby make our tired world  NEW again! It is a prayer for every person on earth to experience the remainder of their days in a consciousness of God.

In the emerging new world order, technology is bursting through the limits of morality and decency. The messages of isolation, nationalism, and the flagrant expressions that abandon all reference to a global village, leave fewer and fewer people wanting to discuss spiritual matters or engage in so-called‘ God-talK. 

Yet it remains my prayer that through the good-wishes expressed by families and friends worldwide, for a Happy New Year, God will reveal to all, that the one hope remaining for lasting happiness in the human race, is a return to our Origin. ” It is through faith that we receive our original position with God, the one which God destined for us at the creation. In gaining our original position with God, we gain our own genuinely human life.” (2) It is this thought that the ancient Psalm writer David captures in the words of the text quoted: ” I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into “the House Of The Lord.” Nothing can bring more happiness into the life of the well-wisher and to the recipient, than to hear it said, whether it be immediately, or later: ” I was glad that you said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord!” 

 It is noteworthy that some of David’s acquaintances knew the immeasurable influence of being conscious of God in one’s life. It is the conclusion widely accepted that the thought, which follows, is the greatest ever expressed by humankind:        

“Augustine of Hippo, 354 AD ( Confessions 11:1) wrote:” You, O God have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You!”(3)

Our text further enlightens another critical tenet of faith: ” I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord! And now our feet are standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem!” There is here the powerful suggestion that an immediate conveyance from all worldly restrictions to the liberty of Heavenly expanses follows the acceptance of an invitation to seek God.” And now our feet are standing inside Your gates, O Jerusalem!” There are many illustrations of the gratifying results that follow a seeking of the Presence of God. 

Many years ago a parishioner of mine was in the late stages of stomach cancer. Her many hospital sojourns, over time, resulted in many people coming to visit and to seek the inspiring company of this remarkable lady. The time comes when a limitation on the number of visitors is necessary. Towards the end, only family, and the patient’s clergy are allowed to visit. 

On one particular morning, a fellow clergy and I happened to meet in the hospital chapel. Almost instantly, the conversation evolved concerning our dearly loved friend! A member of the nursing staff discreetly approaches and, with evident concern, whispers, ” Please go and see Judy! She had a terrible night last night! Without a moment’s hesitation, we hasten to Judy’s room! The tousled bed coverings suggest that the occupant had not rested. Telling signs of the night of struggle still clung to her. “We see that the night was a difficult one for you, Judy,” my friend suggests, more to break the silence than anything. And then, in a voice dimmed by pain, she said: ” It was a horrible night! I didn’t close my eyes! ” Then summoning her resources of failing strength and looking squarely at us, she continued with an unmistakable note of triumph, ” It was a horrible night! But did you boys see the sunrise this morning! I saw the most beautiful sunrise I have ever experienced in all my life,” she smiled as she pointed through her window toward the eastern sky.         ” I know that everything will be OK”! 

There it is!! a conveyance from the limiting grip of pain to the experience of seeing the Face of God! 

 I wish you all A Happy New Year, with God’s blessing on you and yours!  

   A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father, with sincere gratitude, I commit my New Year dawning into Your gracious keeping. I desire, above all else, for each day, that You have given to me, as it falls into Your sunset, that it may bring You happiness and delight. My happiness depends on Your Happiness! The work of my hands, the thoughts of my mind and, the love in my hear must all bear Your citation:” and God saw that it was good.” (4)

That translates into a single petition: Father, make me Anew! ” With Your Spirit recreate me strong and pure and true.”(5) I ask you now to deepen the capacity of my inner being and let it contain less of worldly influence and more of the Spirit of Jesus. Indeed ‘You have made me for Yourself,’ let this be the year when I fully embrace that fact so that I can help make this a Happy New Year for You and all I meet everywhere.

Father, bless us and keep us. May Your face shine upon us. And may Your abiding Presence with us forever give us Peace. Amen.

Hymn: Nearer, My God To Thee

https://youtu.be/rwLl5nY5WPI

 EDITORIAL NOTES

1. The Scripture references herein are from Good News Bible

2.reference a work by Emil Brunner, MAN IN REVOLT

3.Quote by Augustine of Hippo https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/42572-thou-hast-made-us-for-thyself-o-lord-and-our

4. Quote, from Genesis 1:31 Holy Bible

5.Hymnary, God Who Touches Earth With Beautyhttps://hymnary.org/text/god_who_touchest_earth_with_beauty#pagescans

In Heaven, God called together the Celestial Council. The Angels and Archangels looked resplendent in their flowing white robes. They waited in the Sacred Hush for what was to be the announcement of the most crowning event since the morning stars sang together at creation.

The shrill of Heaven’s trumpet proclaiming the entry of the Divine Majesty sounds! God, in unimaginable glory, sits down upon ‘The Great White Throne.’ And once more, the Sacred consumes everything as God, our Father, speaks!

” I have summonsed you, to announce that it is because of the cries of pain and the images of cruel injustices affecting Me so urgently that I, Myself, must go down to earth to be with My people. Then I shall give them the greatest gift my love can create, My own dear Son. In Him, My Presence will continue to dwell with my children on earth. 

I will carry Him, in my arms, down the ‘back stairs of Heaven’ and leave Him on the world’s doorstep. That way the hearts of my people will open to receive Him and to give Him a ‘Home.'” 

Spontaneously, a million voices break into exultant Song:

 “Glory To God In The Highest, And on earth
Peace and Goodwill for all!
Glory To God!
Glory To God.” 

And in Heaven, there were tears of Joy. 

When the singing in Heaven finally ended, the Archangel Gabriel, stood forth.

 ” O my Father of Light;

                                 Indeed this is the greatest gift that You will ever give to Your world! More significant than the sun, the moon, and the stars altogether. But Father, what if the people fail in their love and their responsibility?”

The ensuing silence was pregnant with the fearful possibility of such a heart- wrenching result. 

“But, they will not fail!” came the words which had lent an absolute finality to each command for creation.

” In the secret place of their hearts, I have hidden the majesty of giving themselves to me in love, as I give Myself to them this night. It may take thousands of years, but there will come a time when the whole world will give back the Song to Us which, the Angels just sang this night!

Mary, a young peasant girl from Nazareth and of human stock, in preparation for this night, has provided My Son, His first earthly home, and She has become “My Servant.”

  Angels and archangels May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.”

Christmas 2019 arrives in a world amidst the stark evidence of ” Man’s inhumanity to man,” and the amplified voices of disillusioned cynics, announcing that God’s magnificent Plan has failed. But unsubmissively comes a Voice as bright as the sound of a thousand silver trumpets on the frosty air, ” My people will not fail.”

It is our responsibility now, yours and mine, to sharpen the perspective for all people to see God’s greatest gift ever bestowed to this world. That gift which, is the fulfillment of God’s Hope, is that like Mary, we too will be willing servants to make it possible for Jesus to be born anew into the world.  

May the Blessings of this glorious Christmas Season be so experienced by you and those of your household to swell the music of Heaven. May the Season be filled with this sound echoing among the hills: ”  

                    ” Joy to the world
The Lord has come
Let earth receive her king
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing

And Heaven and nature sing.”  Amen.

A  Christmas Story Meditation 

Suggested Scripture Reading: Luke 2: 1 – 20

Scripture Emphasis: King James Version – Luke 2:7 

And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

There follows here a ‘story sermon.’ As such, it requires the use of your imagination. It is the result of my heartfelt desire to make available to you something of both the eternal mystery and the unchanging message of the Christmas event. 

The setting for the story is the town of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. The time is the first Christmas Eve.

 On every street corner, crowds are gathering to discuss the latest news on everyone’s mind! The distressing royal decree ordered by the Roman Emperor, Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. That edict touched everyone, the young, the elderly, the born, and the unborn, from all corners of the known world.

 The hopes and fears of all the years are hanging in the balance in Bethlehem tonight! The news that a baby is born to one of the homeless refugees is of no significance to the scores of refugees who can find no place to lay their weary heads in this presently over-crowded town. ‘ The wild and starry sky’ will be the only ceiling many of them will know for as long as this God-forbidding scheme lasts!      

The thoughts prevailing tonight, are not, for the most part, of heavenly things; of God, and angels, and the long-awaited Messiah. This night is better suited for discussions of greed, betrayal, and for idle dreams about warrior kings. Yet, there is, at least, one notable exception!

Amidst the growing evidence of a town yielding to the invitation of undisturbed sleep, there is one cottage where a single light remains burning! It is the home of one, Zachariah Ben Ezra, known among the town’s citizenry, as the carpenter! The light announces the ceaseless vigil that Zachariah’s devoted and dearly beloved wife, Rachael, is keeping. For a fortnight, Rachael and her sons have been waiting to hear the footfall of the angel of death! Almost certainly, this will be the night!

Earlier today, at the bidding of Zachariah, the family gathered around his bed! Silence fell, as the older man summoning his resources of failing strength, speaks.

 ” Like you, I know that before the chariot of the morning rides the eastern rim of the world, I shall go to be with the God Of our Fathers. Listen well, and always honor our Faithful God, as I have sought to do, right to this present hour. There will be many trials and heart wrenching experiences for all of you. In the end, know this one thing; God will always come through, and His Holy Purpose will always prevail. 

My sons, along with faith and love for God, I leave you all the tools of my carpenter’s trade. Twenty-three years, six months and, five days ago this very night, I used these carpenter’s tools for the last time! The memory of that night still gives me such pain, as it causes me to tremble! I was finishing my very final shift at the stable at Bethlehem’s Inn. On the morrow, I would have been one of the carpenters in charge of building our Holy Temple. That would be quite an honor and so different from building a manger in the stable at Bethlehem’s Inn! The dream of a lifetime was on the verge of becoming a reality! And then every creative possibility, and the development of every God-given talent I received ground to a torturous stop! My right arm becomes severed from my body. Looking up, I saw tears, but I couldn’t determine if they were my own tears or if they were God’s! But of this one thing, I remain certain; I am never alone! Not then! Not now! My hope in this life was to accomplish something good for God, Who has done so much for me! But, I guess the time is passing for that now!  And what have I accomplished? But now I place this broken instrument into God’s hands, and pray that the touch of His hand will play a tune suitable to be heard in the courts of Heaven!”

Death lingers a while longer for Zachariah. About midnight a friend of many years, hastens to Zacharius’ bedside, captivated by an aire of uncontrollable excitement. Bending his lips to Zachariah’s ear, he whispered, “Zachariah, my dear friend, Your Friend, Israel’s Messiah has come! He is lying in the manger you built in Bethlehem’s stable!

Prayer To Follow This Meditation

O glorious Light of Heaven,
Shine upon the pathway that will bring us to the manger of Bethlehem at this Christmas time.
Kneeling there before the Light Of The World, who arrives again this night from Heaven, fix in us reflectors that we may show by word and deed the message of this Season, ‘Emmanuel, God is with us.’ Fix in us Thy humble dwelling that we may prove ourselves to be ambassadors of Thy Peace on earth. Help us, that we may add to the legend of how even beasts of the field, offer all they have to honor the Baby. He yet lies helpless in our crowded world, awaiting humble hearts, wherein He may dwell.
O Light of Heaven, send Your effulgent rays into the far reaches of our world, that people of all nations, coming to it’s rising, will constitute One Family for the glory of God! Amen.

Hymn: Silent Night

https://youtu.be/O5tPlnW80Ao

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. It is recommended The Christmas Story be read from the King James Translation of Scripture.
2.  The photo is from free stock images of the Nativity.
3.   This sermon was first preached at Grand Bank United Church on Christmas Eve 1983.

Scripture Reading: John 13: 34 – 35

Reference Scripture:

 Isaiah 49:15-16 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 16. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;”

Never a Sunday morning went by but I  greeted him. While still firmly gripping my hand, and looking squarely into my eyes he demands of me each time, “Do you know my name?” Some parishioners would nod in my direction in perceived acknowledgment that time was slowly claiming another victim. His face now bearing the signs of yet one more approaching fall season, is consumed in a smile of contentment at my expression of gratitude for the privilege of knowing him. But there is something more to be said about those lines that mark his face than just being signs of age. Those lines tell the unique story of adventures undertaken, of battles won or lost, of love felt, of heartbreaking separations, of honors gained. Here is a story of life’s experience passing through the medium of one more human soul, begging to be allowed to help some other pilgrim of the way. “Do you know my name?”

I propose that everyone, especially as they leave a place of sanctuary and worship, share a sincere longing to be known in just such a way as my friend who asks, ” Do you know my name?” Everyone you meet regardless of age has a story of a life’s experience that is being molded by its passage through their unique soul. 

To love another is to share in their life’s story with them. This love is not to gain full disclosure of the other person, based upon prying or curious investigatory pursuits. To share in the unique story of another’s life is a ‘Spiritual Occurrence’ that originates and continues with love.

In the final analysis, is this not truly the raison d’etre of the Church of Jesus Christ? Was the church not established so that no individual might be compelled to write their life’s story in isolation? ” By this shall everyone know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.” (John 13: 35).

Moreso, than in any other place in the world, the church should be the place to respond with love to anyone’s inquiry, ” Do you know me”? Not merely as one more faceless human waiting to receive a lifeless handclasp, but do you know my name? Noticing wrinkles of age on the face of another, or observing a sparkling light in the eyes of youth are unspoken invitations to you, to share in events passing through the medium of that soul, which could have the potential of making this world a more beautiful place for us all?

In an age that demands instant gratification for all things, it is of extreme importance to take time for each other. The building of personalities, fit to inherit the Kingdom of God, is the mission of every disciple of Jesus Christ. It demands the opening of the flood gates of one’s own experience of  ‘ The Spirit.’  Spirit with Spirit must meet! There is no higher expression of “Love” than that! One’s experience of the Christ within you must embrace the spirit of Christ within another person. In such a desire, the immanent Presence of Jesus Christ in the world will fulfill God’s desire to provide light for our journey homeward.

As the present Scripture text indicates, God’s love for his people, Israel, compelled Him to engrave their name upon His hand in memory of both their faithfulness and their need. To the degree that we have the names of others engraved upon our hearts in Christ’s Name, here on earth, can we hope to find our names engraved upon the hand of God in remembrance of our earthly journey, when we get Home!  (1)

                 PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

 Our Father,

No one of us is ever singled out by You as being more deserving than any other member in your family. Father, Your love is the greatest equalizer in all creation! With incredible tenderness, you keep strict observation of the unique gifts You store inside each individual. You marvel at the unique creation which ‘human ingenuity and skill’ fashion out of Your investment – the talents You entrusted us. Then You endow us, fellow travelers of the way, with one more vital task, that of encouragement and empathetic sharing. We each contribute to the content and spirited details of each individual’s life! In this way is the whole round earth bound by gold chains about Your feet, O God. Amen.

HYMN: O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go

https://youtu.be/KtX1Joe94Ic

   EDITORIAL NOTES

1. Suggested Additional Reading: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/maclaren/isaiah/49.htm
2. Photo: stock image

Scripture Reading: Matthew 11: 25 – 30

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE:                                                                                                                   Psalm 75: 1 – 2  We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks, for Your Name is near, men tell of your wonderful deeds. (God replies) ” When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm.”

Environmentalists are capturing the planet earth, in drab, black, and white photos! Through powerful scientific lenses, they examine the planet’s future as it is destined to be. The earth’s inhabitants, if they continue to live by their soulless rationality, will be developing these black and white photos for all posterity. 

Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poet in the 1800s, addresses a very similar theme with finesse and crucial faith. Hopkins bursts in upon the darkening scene, that portrays man’s complete lack of stewardship of the earth’s resources, with this immortal pronouncement: 

  “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like, shining from shook foil.” (2)

Today as I walked among the most glorious panoply of autumn foliage, God’s Presence was everywhere around me.                                                                            

“A haze on the far horizon,
 The infinite, tender sky,
 The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields,
 And the wild geese sailing high —
 And all over upland and lowland
 The charm of the golden-rod —
 Some of us call it Autumn
 And others call it God.”(3)

Our response to environmental threats must not be a paralyzing fear or a multi-directional frenzy. Any effort now in caring for this world must not depend upon our own corrupt, self-serving efforts that helped to create the crisis in the first place. Instead, we must reinvite the world’s population to harken for the foot-fall of God. Our eyes are blind to a world that is ‘charged with the grandeur of God.’ The pronouncements of worldly wisdom are so bombarding our hearing that we are deaf to the Wisdom of God.

Psalm 75 speaks of the Jews in exile, stricken by memories of what it used to be like in their beloved homeland. In exile, they tremble at the fearful prospects of present threats. The ‘Songs Of Zion’ that were once the harbinger of God’s approach, are now sadly silent among them.

Then one day, the sound of a voice like something from heaven, echoes through the darkening chambers of these human souls: ” We give thanks to you, O God, for Your Name is near.”And hearts become brave again, and arms are strong. Hallelujah! (4)

Within each person, God still reserves a place of green pastures and quiet running streams. We must not let the shouting and the tumult of the fevered world occupy that part of God’s creation, which He chose, above all else, to ‘bear His Image.’

The predestined victory of God in Heaven comes to the world in Jesus Christ. His voice, the final clarion call from Heaven, calls us to responsiveness.

 “We give thanks to You, O God. We give thanks to You. Your wondrous works declare that You are near,”  to which God responds, “When the earth  quakes and its people live in turmoil, I am the one who keeps its foundations firm.” Wondrous are the deeds awaiting us on God’s near horizon. 

                                        A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

O God,                                                                                                                                              tenderly lay your cooling hand upon our fevered brows, so that Your touch will quiet our fears, and restore our hope.

We are genuinely sorry to have permitted the chaos and confusion of the world to come inside our personal space. The world seduces us into believing that its wisdom is the road-map to progress. It is our failure to stand firm in the faith that changes hope into despair and brings threatening disaster to our very doors.

“Dear Lord and Father of us all forgive our foolish ways! Clothe us once again in sound minds, and in purer lives may we find new opportunities for service. Let it be the hallmark of all believing people, to proclaim with deeper reverence,” The Lord our God is with us, and He fills the earth with His glory.    So let it be to the end of time.” Amen.                                                                                                              

Hymn: God Who Touches Earth With Beauty

https://youtu.be/-u7Y4Zmrq3I                                                                            

                                                              EDITORIAL NOTES

1.  Scripture references are from the NIV translation of Scriptures.
2.  God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manly Hopkins. https://www.bartleby.com/122/7.html
3. Some of us call it God by William Herbert Carruth.https://www.flickr.com/photos/92586827@N00/9838932493/
4. For all the Saints, who from their labors rest by William Walsham How https://hymnary.org/text/for_all_the_saints_who_from_their_labors
5. Photo: Porterville United Church of Canada. one of the most beautiful small communities in Newfoundland. It is part of the Lewisporte Pastoral Charge.

Suggested Reading : Genesis 21: 14 – 21 ;

Matthew 9: 21 – 26

Scripture Emphasis:

Genesis 21:15 – 16.

 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, ‘  I cannot watch the boy die.’ And as she sat there, she began o sob.”

These words usher us into the chamber of suffering, ravaging a mother’s soul. The mood swings that invade an individual’s life are merciless! In a moment, they can force a person to ‘ swing between Heavens Gate and Hell Gate.’ (2)

The way of the world has never been kind to the crown jewel of God’s creation. Following their lingering walk with God, in The Garden of Eden; the human’s journey becomes obtuse because of human disobedience. A fiery sword stands to block the way of ease and the intimate communion with God. Men must earn their bread in the sweat of their brows; in pain must the women bear their children.

 Millions, the world over, seek ways to circumvent the fiery sword and to discover other means of ease and fulfillment.

The Bible provides a unique response to the hardships of this life. In spite of the myriad of purported solutions, It is ‘from the pages of ‘Holy Writ’ that there comes the one light to illuminate that human dilemma,’ when life renders us helpless.” 

A conscious decision is made here, not to indulge in a repetition of the historical details and, the religious themes found in the story chosen for our consideration. I propose, rather, a reflection of more general issues which are familiar to all people everywhere.

The curtain rises on the torturing pain that fills a mother’s soul as she faces absolute helplessness. The desert’s blistering heat has sapped the energy of both the mother and her child. The discovery of an empty water-jar intensifies her crisis. The pitiful cry of her thirsty child is just too much for her. She considers running from the heart-wrenching scene but, love constrains her.

 It will remain forever, I suspect, the most bitter of all human experiences; to feel the immortal chords of love, binding us to a situation, where we are helpless to render service to the one that love compels.

“And then Hagar went and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, I cannot watch the boy die.” So she sat there and wept! And I could weep with her. 

The cry of a child dying of thirst, punctuated by the sobs of the helpless, tortured mother, are the only sounds in the desert’s cruel silence! Are these vicious realities not what will make the recall of this day dreaded for as long as her life lasts? The memory of the tragic circumstances that initiated this whole ordeal, coupled with the present crushing outcome, leave Hagar, a broken object on the desert floor.

 Consider this eternal truth: it is never God’s way, to abandon any human being, as a mere plaything of fate and cruel circumstances.

 God’s action now transforms Hagar’s consciousness. No longer is the destructive content of this moment, that ravages her soul, ln control; instead, it is God Who intercepts the catastrophic moment!

That transformation of consciousness is the one happening that can rescue Hagar from the tragedy threatening to consume the remainder of her life.

God counterbalances the sound of her child’s crying with an action that transforms her life forever.  ( Genesis 21: 19) “Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.”

No experience of helplessness should ever become a brand, marking any portion of time, in one’s life. God desires to transform human consciousness into a knowledge of His immanent Presence! The onward thrust of God’s Spirit is irresistible, not in the sense that it nowhere encounters obstacles, checks, and frustrations but in the sense that its direction is set (3). In the end, it will prevail. All that we must remember is to surrender to this certainty. 

  Prayer To Follow This Meditation
O God, our Father, Whose eye never fails to see all the situations that can leave a person feeling helpless in this life; whose ear never fails to hear the sound of love unable to deliver it’s gift to the beloved; whose own heart of redeeming Love paid the price on the Cross to rescue each one of us from the experience of helplessness, we surrender all!
Remind us ever that the dark sky of evening merely provides a black background of velvet to magnify the glory of the evening star! All that contributes to the darkened skies of our seeming helplessness is only the background that magnifies the glorious presence of God. Helplessness is not found in a theology of faith! O God help us to eradicate it from our vocabulary, and even more from the experience of every human in this world! Trusting in the victory won for us in Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.

Hymn: Be Still My Soul

https://youtu.be/cHNT6G9ZKik

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. All the Scripture references are from the NIV translation of Scripture

2. There will always be the church and the world 

by T. S. Eliot

“There shall always be the Church and the World 

And the Heart of Man 

Shivering and fluttering between them, choosing and chosen, 

Valiant, ignoble, dark and full of light 

Swinging between Hell Gate and Heaven Gate. 

And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail”.                                          3. See “Thomas Merton On Prayer”                                                         https://learn25.com/product/thomas-merton-on-prayer/

4. Stock photo from the web used here to illustrate                 ” Helplessness”

Scripture Reading: Luke 19: 1 – 10