Note: As a personal, spiritual discipline, reviving my practice in the Lenten season of 2017, I revise the prayers I wrote then for each of the forty days of this Lent; each petition focusing on a theme, a concern weighing on my mind and heart or a care of my soul and spirit.
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On the Kingdom of God (being a meditation on Matthew 25.31-40)…
O Jesus, You came proclaiming that in Your life and Your ministry God’s Kingdom had drawn nigh. Still, the Kingdom seems (at times, I fear, is) afar off. For Kingdom-evidences, in this strife-torn, sorrow-worn creation, sometimes (and, at times, oft) are hard for me to see.
Yet, blessedly, O Jesus, illumined by Your gospel-light, with the spiritual sight of imagination, Kingdom-visions are not hard for me to seek. Through mine eye of faith, I behold…
Banquets where none hunger and all are welcome…
Festivals where none are poor, all attired in silken robes of equality’s wealth…
Prisons unoccupied where shackles lay shattered and empty, for liberty’s economy hath bankrupted all criminality and made charity the universal coin of the realm…
Hospitals shuttered and dark and graveyards empty, for sickness and death are no more.
O Jesus, hearing again, hearing alway Your call, “Follow Me,” I see anew that I, in my daily living, am to help usher in Your Kingdom-day; in the hungry, naked, imprisoned, stranger, the sick and dying, feeding, clothing, visiting, welcoming, serving, loving You.
Amen.
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 
Serving and Loving! Great messages for today!! One of the things I have on my list of things to do when (not if) we all self-quarantine is to call the sick and shut ins. Especially since the Episcopal churches here are closed. In situations like this it’s all I can think of to do…..
Much love
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And that – keeping in touch with all who are sick and shut-in (and who have been before [who will be during and after] this pandemic crisis) – is a blessed ministry.
I read of the closing of churches in the Dioceses of Washington, Virginia, and, today, California. Here, in SC, we remain open. However, protocols are in place for changes in all of our communal behaviors in response to the crisis. There may come a day when we, too, will…must close our doors for a time. My prayers are for us, each and all.
Love
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