loved by God, day 3

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I feel your love as you hold me to your sacred heart, my beloved Jesus, my God, my Master, but I feel, too, the need I have of your tenderness, and your caress because of my infinite weakness.
                                                                                ~Charles de Foucauld

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 36

Scripture for the Day: 1 John 4:7-21

Reading for Reflection:

Yes, there is that voice, the voice that speaks from above and from within that whispers softly or declares loudly:  "You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests."  It certainly is not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout:  "You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless; you are despicable, you are nobody—unless you can demonstrate the opposite."
     These negative voices are so loud and so persistent that it's easy to believe them.  That's the great trap.  It is the trap of self-rejection.  (Life of the Beloved by Henri J. M. Nouwen).

 

     We spend most of our lives trying to make things happen for ourselves and for people we love.  But life is not reduced to what you give or know or achieve.  Nor is it reduced to your mistakes, your failures, or your sin.  Life isn’t even defined by whom you love.  Rather, it is defined by the God who loves you.  In other words, you are not the central character—not even of your own life’s story.  This is not meant to demean you; it is meant to set you free. (Sacred Thirst by M. Craig Barnes)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Jesus Lover of My Soul

Jesus, lover of my soul,
let me to thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
till the storm of life is past;
safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee;
leave, ah! leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring;
cover my defenseless head
with the shadow of thy wing.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am;
thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee;
spring thou up within my heart;
rise to all eternity


Closing Prayer:
O Thou who ordered this wondrous world, and who knowest all things in earth and heaven:  So fill our hearts with trust in thee that by night and day, at all times and in all seasons, we may without fear commit all that we have and hope to be to thy never-failing love, for this life and the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Worship)

loved by God, day 2

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I feel your love as you hold me to your sacred heart, my beloved Jesus, my God, my Master, but I feel, too, the need I have of your tenderness, and your caress because of my infinite weakness.
                                                                                ~Charles de Foucauld

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 36

Scripture for the Day: Romans 5:1-8

Reading for Reflection:

I know you through and through—I know everything about you.  The very hairs on your head I have numbered.  Nothing in your life is unimportant to me, I have followed you through the years, and I have always loved you—even in your wanderings.

     I know every one of your problems.  I know your need and your worries.  And, yes, I know all your sins.  But I tell you again that I love you—not for what you have or haven’t done—I love you for you, for the beauty and dignity my Father gave you by creating you in his own image.

    It is a dignity you have often forgotten, a beauty you have tarnished by sin.  But I love you as you are, and I have shed my blood to win you back.  If you only ask me with faith, my grace will touch all that needs changing in your life; and I will give you the strength to free yourself from sin and all its destructive power.

     I know what is I your heart—I know your loneliness and all your hurts—the rejections, the judgments, the humiliations.  I carried it all before you.  And I carried it all for you, so you might share my strength and victory.  I know especially your need for love—how you are thirsting to be loved and cherished.  But how often have you thirsted in vain, by seeking that love selfishly, striving to fill the emptiness inside you with passing pleasures—with even greater emptiness of sin.  Do you thirst for love?  “Come to me all you who thirst” (John 7:37).  I will satisfy you and fill you.  Do you thirst to be cherished?  I cherish you more than you can imagine to the point of dying on a cross for you.

     I thirst for you.  Yes, that is the only way to even begin to describe my love for you: I thirst for you.  I thirst to love and to be loved by you—that is how precious you are to me.  I thirst for you.  Come to me, and fill your heart and heal your wounds.

     If you feel unimportant in the eyes of the world, that matters not at all.  For me, there is no one any more important in the entire world than you.  I thirst for you.  Open to me, come to me, thirst for me, give me your life—and I will prove to you how important you are to my heart.

     No matter how far you may wander, no matter how often you forget me, no matter how many crosses you may bear in this life, there is one thing I want you to remember always, one thing that will never change: I thirst for you—just as you are.  You don’t need to change to believe in my love, for it will be your belief in my love that will change you.  You forget me, and yet I am seeking you every moment of the day—standing at the door of your heart, and knocking.

     Do you find this hard to believe?  Then look at the cross, look at my heart that was pierced for you.  Have you not understood my cross?  Then listen again to the words I spoke there—for they tell you clearly why I endured all this for you: I thirst (John 19:28).  Yes, I thirst for you—as the rest of the Psalm verse which I was praying says of me: “I looked for love, and I found none” (Psalm 69:20).

     All your life I have been looking for your love—I have never stopped seeking to love and be loved by you.  You have tried many other things in your search for happiness; why not try opening your heart to me, right now, more than you ever have before.

     Whenever you do not open the door of your heart, whenever you come close enough, you will hear me say to you again and again, not in mere human words but in spirit: “No matter what you have done, I love you for your own sake.”

     Come to me with your misery and your sins, with your trouble and needs, and with all your longing to be loved.  I stand at the door of your heart and knock.  Open to me, for I thirst for you.

(I Thirst for You by Mother Teresa from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter)
    

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Jesus Lover of My Soul

Jesus, lover of my soul,
let me to thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
till the storm of life is past;
safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee;
leave, ah! leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring;
cover my defenseless head
with the shadow of thy wing.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am;
thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee;
spring thou up within my heart;
rise to all eternity


Closing Prayer:
O Thou who ordered this wondrous world, and who knowest all things in earth and heaven:  So fill our hearts with trust in thee that by night and day, at all times and in all seasons, we may without fear commit all that we have and hope to be to thy never-failing love, for this life and the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Worship)

loved by God, day 1

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I feel your love as you hold me to your sacred heart, my beloved Jesus, my God, my Master, but I feel, too, the need I have of your tenderness, and your caress because of my infinite weakness.
                                                                                ~Charles de Foucauld

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 36

Scripture for the Day: Ephesians 3:14-21

Reading for Reflection:

     Aren't you, like me hoping that some person, thing or event will come along to give you that final feeling of inner well-being you desire?  Don't you often hope:  "May this book, idea, course, trip, job, country or relationship fulfill my deepest desire."  But as long as you are waiting for that mysterious moment you will go on running helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied.  You know that this is the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy, but at the same time makes us wonder whether we are getting anywhere in the long run.  This is the way to spiritual exhaustion and burn-out.  This is the way to spiritual death.
     Well, you and I don't have to kill ourselves.  We are the Beloved.  We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children and friends loved or wounded us.  That's the truth of our lives.  That's the truth I want you to claim for yourself. That's the truth spoken by the voice that says," You are my Beloved."
     Listening to that voice with great inner attentiveness, I hear words that say:  "I have called you by name, from the very beginning.  You are mine and I am yours.  You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.  I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb.  I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace.  I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for a child.  I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step.  Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch.  I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all your thirst.  I will not hide my face from you.  You know me as your own and I know you as my own,  You belong to me....wherever you are I will be.  Nothing will ever separate us.  We are one." (Life of the Beloved by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Jesus Lover of My Soul

Jesus, lover of my soul,
let me to thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
till the storm of life is past;
safe into the haven guide;

O receive my soul at last.
Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee;
leave, ah! leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring;
cover my defenseless head
with the shadow of thy wing.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am;
thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee;
spring thou up within my heart;
rise to all eternity


Closing Prayer:
O Thou who ordered this wondrous world, and who knowest all things in earth and heaven:  So fill our hearts with trust in thee that by night and day, at all times and in all seasons, we may without fear commit all that we have and hope to be to thy never-failing love, for this life and the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Worship)

the grace of God, day 7

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I am sure that there is in me nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as You are.  Yet You have declared Your unchanging love for me in Christ Jesus.  If nothing in me can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving me.  Your love is uncaused and undeserved.  You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith I am loved. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 32

Scripture for the Day: Luke 7:36-50

Reading for Reflection:

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace—only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.  It can be received gladly or grudgingly, in big gulps or in tiny tastes, like a deer at the salt.  I gobbled it, licked it, held it down between my little hooves. (Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott)

The more we immerse ourselves in grace, the more likely we are to give grace. (In the Grip of Grace by Max Lucado)

 

     The greatest saints are not those who need less grace, but those who consume the most grace, who indeed are most in need of grace—those who are saturated by grace in every dimension of their being.  Grace to them is like breath. (Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
 
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.
 
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.


Closing Prayer:
Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You Whom I have offended, because You love in me Your only begotten Son.  You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which brought Him to death, for me, on the Cross. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

the grace of God, day 6

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I am sure that there is in me nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as You are.  Yet You have declared Your unchanging love for me in Christ Jesus.  If nothing in me can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving me.  Your love is uncaused and undeserved.  You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith I am loved. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 32

Scripture for the Day: Romans 3:21-26

Reading for Reflection:

The Bible often portrays the grace of God as a thin stream of refreshing water that perseveres in a desert land.  The only way our parched souls can survive in a spiritually desolate society is to stay close to that stream.  That is why we come to worship, read our Bibles, serve others, and pray without ceasing throughout the day.  It’s all a way of drinking in the grace that keeps us spiritually alive.  The more time we spend by that stream, the more deeply our lives become rooted in God (Psalm 1).

     Those roots are pretty important because sometimes we get more grace than we want.  It doesn’t happen often, but when the storms come, the thin stream can suddenly turn into a raging river, washing away everything that is not firmly planted.  We never want to get too sentimental about grace.  While most days it is God’s gentle refreshment to our souls, some days it comes as a terrifying reminder that our lives are out of control.

     On the stormy days, we may wonder if it was such a good idea to live so close to the stream.  We may even wish God would just leave us alone.  Yet if the torrent sweeps away the things that are not spiritually rooted, then even that is a grace.  Remember, the point of God’s grace is not to be nice to us.  Grace does what we cannot do for ourselves.  It carries us home to God.  Sometimes on a gentle stream.  Sometimes on a raging river.  Yet always back to God. (Extravagant Mercy by M. Craig Barnes)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
 
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.
 
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.


Closing Prayer:
Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You Whom I have offended, because You love in me Your only begotten Son.  You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which brought Him to death, for me, on the Cross. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

the grace of God, day 5

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I am sure that there is in me nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as You are.  Yet You have declared Your unchanging love for me in Christ Jesus.  If nothing in me can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving me.  Your love is uncaused and undeserved.  You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith I am loved. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 32

Scripture for the Day: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Reading for Reflection:

God has infinite treasures to give us.  Yet a little tangible devotion, which passes away in a moment, satisfies us.  How blind we are, since in this way we tie God’s hands, and we stop the abundance of His grace!  But when He finds a soul penetrated with living faith, He pours out grace on it in abundance.  God’s grace is like a torrent.  When it is stopped from taking its ordinary course, it looks for another outlet, and when it finds one, it spreads out with impetuosity and abundance. (Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence)


Grace is the presence and action of Christ in our lives inviting us to let go of where we are now and to be open to new values that are born every time we penetrate to a new understanding of the Gospel.  (Awakenings by Thomas Keating)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
 
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.
 
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.


Closing Prayer:
Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You Whom I have offended, because You love in me Your only begotten Son.  You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which brought Him to death, for me, on the Cross. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

the grace of God, day 4

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I am sure that there is in me nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as You are.  Yet You have declared Your unchanging love for me in Christ Jesus.  If nothing in me can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving me.  Your love is uncaused and undeserved.  You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith I am loved. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 32

Scripture for the Day: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Reading for Reflection:

The wildness of God giving us freedom is even more staggering when we remember that he has already paid dearly for giving freedom to the angels.  But because of his grand heart he goes ahead and takes the risk, an enormous, colossal risk.  The reason he didn’t make puppets is because he wanted lovers.  Remember, he’s inviting us into a romance.  Freedom is part of the explanation for the problem of evil.  God is the author of some storms directly; but he is the author of the possibility of all storms in giving us freedom.  And we opened Pandora’s box.
     Can you imagine if on your honeymoon one of you sneaked off for a rendezvous with a perfect stranger?  Adam and Eve kicked off the honeymoon by sleeping with the enemy.  Then comes one of the most poignant verses in all of Scripture.  “What have you done?” (Genesis 3:13).  You can almost hear the shock, the pain of betrayal in God’s voice.  The fall of Adam and Eve mustn’t be pictured as a crime like theft, but as a betrayal of love.  In love God creates us for love and we give him the back of our hand.  Why?  Satan bets us to side with him by sowing the seed of doubt in our first parents’ minds:  “God’s heart really isn’t good.  He’s holding out on you.  You’ve got to take things into your own hands.”  And paradise was lost.
     Yet there was something about the heart of God that the angels and our first parents had not seen yet.  Here, at the lowest point in our relationship, God announces his intention never to abandon us but to seek us out and win us back.  “I will come for you.”  Grace introduces a new element of God’s heart.  Up till this point we knew he was rich, famous, influential, even generous.  Behind all that can still hide a heart that is less than good.  Grace removes all doubt.  (The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
 
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.
 
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.


Closing Prayer:
Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You Whom I have offended, because You love in me Your only begotten Son.  You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which brought Him to death, for me, on the Cross. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

the grace of God, day 3

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I am sure that there is in me nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as You are.  Yet You have declared Your unchanging love for me in Christ Jesus.  If nothing in me can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving me.  Your love is uncaused and undeserved.  You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith I am loved. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 32

Scripture for the Day: Titus 3:1-7

Reading for Reflection:

The grace of God says to you and to me, "I can make last place more significant than first place.  I will use prostitutes to teach others about gratitude.  I will use lepers as examples of cleanliness.  I will take men who persecute the church and make them pillars.  I will take the dead and give them life.  I will take uneducated fishermen and make them fishers of men."  God's grace does not exist to make us successful.  God's grace exists to point people to a love like no other love they have ever known.  A love outside the lines. (Dangerous Wonder by Mike Yaconelli)

 

     Grace means that there isn't anything you can do to make God love you any less.  What will drive you crazy is the discovery that there isn't anything you can do to make him love you any more, either. (Hustling God  by Craig Barnes)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
 
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.
 
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.


Closing Prayer:
Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You Whom I have offended, because You love in me Your only begotten Son.  You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which brought Him to death, for me, on the Cross. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

the grace of God, day 2

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I am sure that there is in me nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as You are.  Yet You have declared Your unchanging love for me in Christ Jesus.  If nothing in me can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving me.  Your love is uncaused and undeserved.  You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith I am loved. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 32

Scripture for the Day: Ephesians 2:1-10

Reading for Reflection:

Cheap Grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution [forgiveness] without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate [in the flesh].
     Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that has.  It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.  It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble.  It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him.  Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.  Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.  It is costly because it costs a man his life, and is grace because it gives a man the only true life. (The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
 
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.
 
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.


Closing Prayer:
Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You Whom I have offended, because You love in me Your only begotten Son.  You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which brought Him to death, for me, on the Cross. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)