God of might, giver of every good gift,
put into our hearts the love of your name,
so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,
you may nurture in us what is good
and, by your watchful care,
keep safe what you have nurtured.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Collect Prayer of this past week once again turns us to God, who is the source of all reality in its being and goodness, the source of our hearts and of the very freedom by which we enter into relationship with Him and are brought to fulfillment in Him.
We can pray this prayer of grateful dependence, which is not an enslavement because God is the One who gives us our very existence as persons, our uniqueness, our dignity. We remember that dependence on God is the only real freedom, the only liberation from our indigence and apparent insignificance that leads to wisdom and enduring life.
He who is the giver of every good gift has given us a promise. He will awaken, sustain, and protect our freedom as He guides us to the realization of our true and definitive selves as persons in relation to Him and one another, sharing in His infinite life, infinite goodness, infinite love.
Why would we want to paralyze ourselves in a powerless mistrust of the all-Good God? What would that leave us with? O harrowing loneliness!
No. Let us ask with boundless trust: "Put into my heart love for You, deepen my awareness of You as the real center of my existence, nurture my adherence to You and all things in the goodness they have from You, and keep me safe until the fulfillment of Your promise."
"Ask and you shall receive," the Lord has promised. So let's ask, keep asking, return to asking again, never stop asking through all the darkness, the obscurity, the failures, the pain, the distractions, and the solitude of this life's journey.
Ask.
Never give up asking God to give you His love. His grace empowers the "asking" itself, opening up our freedom and enabling us to adhere to Him.
The Collect Prayer of this past week once again turns us to God, who is the source of all reality in its being and goodness, the source of our hearts and of the very freedom by which we enter into relationship with Him and are brought to fulfillment in Him.
We can pray this prayer of grateful dependence, which is not an enslavement because God is the One who gives us our very existence as persons, our uniqueness, our dignity. We remember that dependence on God is the only real freedom, the only liberation from our indigence and apparent insignificance that leads to wisdom and enduring life.
He who is the giver of every good gift has given us a promise. He will awaken, sustain, and protect our freedom as He guides us to the realization of our true and definitive selves as persons in relation to Him and one another, sharing in His infinite life, infinite goodness, infinite love.
Why would we want to paralyze ourselves in a powerless mistrust of the all-Good God? What would that leave us with? O harrowing loneliness!
No. Let us ask with boundless trust: "Put into my heart love for You, deepen my awareness of You as the real center of my existence, nurture my adherence to You and all things in the goodness they have from You, and keep me safe until the fulfillment of Your promise."
"Ask and you shall receive," the Lord has promised. So let's ask, keep asking, return to asking again, never stop asking through all the darkness, the obscurity, the failures, the pain, the distractions, and the solitude of this life's journey.
Ask.
Never give up asking God to give you His love. His grace empowers the "asking" itself, opening up our freedom and enabling us to adhere to Him.
