Do This and You Will Live

We all know the parable of the Good Samaritan.  We typically remember it as, “Do unto others..”  The actual words used in today’s Gospel are, Go and do likewise, referring to showing mercy as did the Samaritan.

Between these two statements, one that ‘opens’ todays Gospel and one that ‘closes’ it, is contained the fullness of what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Christ.

Our Lord’s statement, Do this and you will live, is pointed toward the ‘certain lawyer’s’ answer to our Lord’s asking him to interpret his own understanding of what scripture teaches about eternal salvation.  Each of us daily assesses What must I do (today) to be found worthy of entering into the Kingdom of Heaven—’Eternal Life’?  The answer given by the man is affirmed by God the Son.  The answer was, focusing on self, I must love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and all my mind, and along with that, I must love my neighbor as myself.

Today’s focus is the ‘Good Samaritan,’ but let’s together delve into the first part of the man’s answer.

1) I must love God with all my heart:  What is the heart in terms of meaning to this commandment? In one sense, the heart is the source of our life.  While our hearts beat, we live.  In another sense it is the source of our bonding with others.  Love is a bond between hearts.  And so this commandment is saying to us that we must dedicate that which gives us life and that which gives us love FULLY—using all my heart—to loving my Lord and my God.

2) I must love God with all my soul:  The first part above dedicates everything physical about me to loving God.  This portion dedicated everything spiritual about me to loving Him.  I must use all my soul to love Him.

3) I must love God with all my strength:  Strength is a capacity to accomplish a goal.  St. Isaac the Syrian says, ‘Whoever prematurely begins a work that is above his strength receives nothing, but only brings harm upon himself.  I must expend all my capacity, all my effort to loving my Lord and my God!

4) I must love God with all my mind:  In short, I can’t be preoccupied with the things of THIS world.  I must have focus, dedicating all that effort in 3) by using my intellect to direct my love—towards my Lord and my God.

Finally, the last portion of the man’s answer puts meat on the bone of the first portion of the answer.  I must love my neighbor as myself.  If I were to accomplish (in my own evaluation of self) ALL of the previous four, but never reached out with my heart to my neighbor, never dedicated my spirit to serving my neighbor, never exerted my strength for the benefit of my neighbor, never focused on the needs of my neighbor as opposed to my own needs, or in my case too often my own desires, then they have all been done in vain!

Our Lord’s instructions to us to qualify as followers, to bear the Holy Name of ‘Christian’, are not so onerous.  Lord, give to us each day the heart, the soul, the strength, and the mind to love the least of Your brethren, for in loving them, we show our love for You.  Help us to find our paths to eternal life in Your heavenly Kingdom!

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever! 

Who is this Rich Man?

I recall reading from the Holy Fathers.  Which one in particular I cannot recall.  The identity does not matter—the content does.  In this particular account a monk was speaking with a visitor, who asked him how he fasts and why he fasts.  The old man replied, “I take 100 grams of bread each day (about a quarter pound).  If I were to eat more, I would be stealing from another who is hungry.”

Living in the world as we do, we too easily lose perspective on how we (individually) live as compared with others around the world, others who are in need. 

Not for all of us, but for most of us, our cupboards are stocked with enough to carry us for several days.  If we’re out of milk, the grocery store is not far away, and even though milk is more expensive now that perhaps ever, we have enough resources to get not only what we need, but more than that if we so choose.

RTS, which is a waste management service, has a survey which indicates that Americans waste about 60 million tons of food every year.  We won’t impose the aforementioned monastic’s rigor on all, but if we allowed three meals in a day at 2 pounds of food in total, that 60 million tons could feed 30 million hungry people.  This same RTS survey also suggested an estimate of 35 million Americans (including 10 million children) suffer from “food insecurity”.  In short, if the waste could be turned into resource, we could wipe out hunger in our country!

In one of today’s Gospel readings we encounter again Lazarus and ‘the rich man’.  Note carefully that our Lord gives the suffering man’s name—Lazarus.  The name Lazarus means ‘God has helped.’  Our Lord does not call the rich man by name.  God does not “remember” his name!  This is the meaning of our prayer for departed souls, “May his (her) memory be eternal!”, asking that the person be found in God’s Book of Life, ever remembered by Him!

Within the meaning of Lazarus’ name, we find yet more teaching.  The images to be found in pondering ‘God has helped’ are multiple.  Lazarus suffered in this life, but still fell under God’s providential care, being led to a place where, when his soul was called for, he was found worthy to be gathered with the sheep, with the righteous.  After death, God has helped by placing Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom.

This is diametrically opposed to the condition of the rich man, who with his fine clothes and sumptuous eating was united in this world not to eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, but he was shackled to the dust of this earth, to which he then returned—without God knowing afterwards who he was, not to be found in God’s eternal memory.

Who is this “Rich Man”?

He is me.  I am him.  God knows the names of all those people who I regularly pass by without ever noticing or recognizing their need.  But when it comes to that day when He speaks the word and calls for my soul to part from my body, will He remember me?  And more to the point, what must I do in the here and now to change from one who is absorbed with self to one who lives selflessly, living for those who have no bread, both physically and spiritually.  For my Lord has called me (and He is calling all of us) to care for “the least of His brethren” in whatever needs they have for which He has given us talents and resources over and above that necessary to supply our own “need” - not want, NEED!

  

Boasting in One's Infirmities

We’re just “people”, as common as the clay of the earth—from which God created us, and to which He promises us that we will return!

I’m therefore nothing ‘special’.  That’s a hard saying for those in our society.  It is especially hard for parents, who consistently want to make their children “feel special.”  “God only made one of you!” we say, and that’s true.  But He also made billions of others.  And so in a very real way, we are as “special” as every snowflake, which is different from every other one, but is simultaneously as common as the next one to fall from the sky!

In today’s Epistle reading (2Cor 11:31-12:9), Saint Paul demonstrates to us how very uncommon he is.

He begins by relating the account of how he had to depend on others to smuggle him physically out of Damascus to save his life.

But then he goes on to describe “a man”, which obviously becomes a pseudonym for himself, who experienced Divine revelations, being caught up to the third heaven, and also being caught up into Paradise where he heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.  This gives us only a dim glimpse into the holiness that exists in the heavenly realms, where spiritual beings (the angels) give voice to things that we, as God’s creation, His “people”, are bound by His Heavenly law to NOT pronounce!

It takes someone more “special” than Saint Paul to speak such words!

Saint Paul uses the word “boast”.  The Greek word used is kauchaomai, which translates more often to glory than to boast.  But it also carries the additional meaning of rejoice.  The Saint is giving us a wealth of meaning by his choice of words, indicative of his being overcome with awe at what God revealed to him.

Now, all of this indeed makes St. Paul one of a very few who have ever had a revelation such as this.  We would conclude that this indeed makes him “special”!

But what words does he use immediately following these?

Of such a one I will glory, yet of myself I will not glory, except in my infirmities.  The word used for infirmities is astheneia, which also means weakness or sickness.

What is a focus on weakness indicative of if not of sin?  And so immediately following the incredible description of things heavenly, Saint Paul brings us immediately back to earth, and to his (and through him, our) sinfulness.  The one special snowflake has just attached himself to the pile of those billions of others, showing in only a few words what potential God has built into us, His creation, but leaving us as members of the larger humanity.

Why?

All of us have been given gifts.  They are to be used in godly ways, in ways that benefit the spiritual well-being of those whom God puts into our lives as being in need in ways He has blessed each of us individually to be of help to the least of His brethren.

Saint Paul goes on to show how God even has a purpose for physical infirmity, wherein one as close to the Lord as Saint Paul is told that his illness will NOT be healed.  Why?  Because My grace is sufficient for you.  In short, “I’ve given you what you need to find salvation.  That includes a little suffering!  Again, why?  For My strength is made perfect in weakness! 

None of us ever want to bear the burdens of sickness nor suffering.  None of us want to watch loved ones have to bear those burdens.  But we need to trust in God who gives to us only that which is of benefit for our salvation—even infirmity.

If we can come to a recognition of such a loving grace from our Lord, we too can glory in our own infirmities.

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

Children of God Becoming Good Students

 We often describe ourselves in this way.  We “dare to call upon the heavenly God as Father”, and therefore we are his children. 

As children, we have a lot to learn.  As children, we often go astray, and we need correction.  Just as with our own children, sometimes a “gentle word of correction” is insufficient to get our attention and to turn us around from the behavior that requires correction.

The Book of Proverbs is filled with instruction and ‘imagery’ related to this issue.  And as is typical for Proverbs, some of the instruction is a combination of positive with negative.  “The rod and rebuke give wisdom.  But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” (Prov 29:15)  And some of the instruction is just reinforcing positives.  “Correct your son and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul.” (Prov 29:17)

Saint Paul also speaks in similar terms.  “No chastening seems to be joyful in the moment, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb 12:11)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus enters the village of Nain, and there in His compassion for His creation, seeing a young man, the only son of his mother, laying dead and being buried, we can only imagine the empathy he feels for the mother.  And so by His Word alone, He restores the young man’s life, and returns him to his mother.

What has this to do with “discipline”, or being God’s children?

If you read further in the 7th Chapter of Saint Luke, we find this incident being reported throughout Judea.  It makes it to the ears of the imprisoned Saint John the Forerunner.  In his own love for his “spiritual children”, his remaining followers, he sends them to Jesus with the question, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”  Jesus answers their question by giving them the grace to witness His miracles.  Only then does He say, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the Gospel preached to them.”  Jesus gives this instruction as John had intended—not for John’s benefit, but for the benefit of John’s disciples.  They are being “taught” by God the Son, brought along as “children” in their understanding.

Jesus then chastises the Pharisees, giving them every chance to repent before it’s too late.  He says, “John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’  The Son of Man has come both eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look—a glutton and a winebibber… But wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Children.  Yes, we need to be corrected, for we often follow the wrong path.  But don’t forget Christ’s own praise of children.  “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat 19:14)

As we consider God’s gentle means of bringing our souls into conformance to His will, consider how Chapter 7 of Saint Luke ends.  Here we find the woman anointing the Lord’s feet with oil, weeping, wiping His feet with her hair.  As she does, Simon the Pharisee in his heart judges both her and the Lord for this act.  For His part, Jesus explains to Simon the case of the creditor who forgives two unequal debts, one much greater than the other.  Simon judges rightly that the one forgiven more will love the more.  Jesus turns this on Simon, saying, “You gave me no water for My feet, no kiss, no anointing.  Since I arrived, she has not ceased to kiss My feet, to wash them with her tears, to anoint Me with her fragrant oil.  Therefore, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  To whom little is forgiven, these love little.”

For us, here is our lesson as children.  Love much!  Love God!  Love the Church!  Love neighbor!  Love your enemy!  Love those easy to love, and love even more those who are hardest to love.

For this is the example set for us by our Lord.  It is an example that shows us the Love of God the Father for us, His children.

The Need to Believe

 Often I go back and review past bulletins and sermons for ideas to refresh and offer anew.  In many of those reviews, one encounters words encouraging a fledgling little community to go forward, to seek the Lord’s will—in their lives, but also within this, His little local church.

Belief is at the core of this.  Let me start with an old story.

In an interview with a Russian monk, a woman asks what is from the world’s perspective a very logical and simple question.  How are we to understand the resurrection of the dead?  Such things don’t happen in the world.

We’ve heard of people who have died and been resuscitated. But that’s different from resurrection.  Resurrection by our Savior promises a new life in heaven, eternally near to Him.

The Russian monk was not even slightly put off guard by the woman’s question.  His answer was simple and direct.  If God created the world out of nothing, if God established all the laws of nature, what could be impossible to Him?  He added, Is it more difficult to resurrect life than to give it?  It’s all in what you believe.

I wonder how often we consider what we’ll encounter after we die.  It should be a component of every day of our lives.  Am I closer today to the perfection to which my Lord has called me than I was yesterday?  Have I taken steps today to reconcile myself with someone who might be at odds with me?  Have I prayed for my enemies?  And the most important question—If God calls me today, have I done everything I should have done to be ready to stand before Him?

Today’s Gospel lays at our feet the commandment, Do unto others…  Before we look into our own standing with respect to this commandment, we must first recognize a couple of things.  First—God has the power to do as He wills.  Next—He always wills for us that which is best for our salvation, that which will secure a place for us near to Him for eternity.  This is why He chose to take on my flesh.  This is why He voluntarily chose to die on the Cross for us.  This is why He resurrected Himself first from the dead, that I and you and all who believe might be able to follow where He has gone first.

“Knowing” that I believe is therefore essential to my place in eternity.  How do I “know”?

Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53)

We are all here today to make this commandment of our Lord the central part of our week.  Today we eat His Body, we drink His Blood, and He faithfully carries us through the coming 6 days to be strengthened once again by Him.

All because I Believe.

Remember that little community we began this piece with?

On any given Sunday as we began, attendance at Liturgy would be around 20 people.

Ten years later, amongst a group of faithful, Liturgy would be attended by about 25 people.

Now ten further years later, amongst a group of faithful, Liturgies are attended by 45 or more people.  We prayed for a building, and to the faithful the Lord granted one.  We prayed for growth, and amongst the faithful the Lord has blessed that request.  He has blessed it to the extent that we’re looking for ways to reconfigure our worship space to make it more comfortable for larger groups of faithful.

How is all this possible?  I don’t know!  What I know is that together we believe, and in that firm faith, the Lord has blessed us beyond our wildest expectations of only a few years ago.

Think of what more He can accomplish in a little place like St. Herman’s—if only we continue to believe!  Because with Him, all things are possible.

The Lukan Jump

 No, it’s not some veiled Star Wars reference.  It has everything to do with when the Liturgical calendar of the Church begins to read Gospel lessons from the Gospel of Saint Luke.  And we find ourselves in the middle of it this week!

So let’s first look at what Gospels are read when during the Liturgical year.

Things begin with Pascha.  John 1:1 starts the cycle of Gospels for the year on the day of Pascha.  We continue to read from the Gospel of Saint John from Pascha until the Liturgy of Pentecost.

Starting with the Monday after Pentecost we begin to read from the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  His Gospel is setup for readings for up to as many as seventeen weeks from this point forward.  From the twelfth week forward, it is read on Saturdays and Sundays, while the Gospel of St. Mark is read on the weekdays.

And now comes “the Lukan Jump”!

Beginning with the Monday after the Sunday after the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross we read from the Gospel of Saint Luke.  Why the reference to “jump”?  Because the number of weeks between Pentecost and the Elevation of the Cross is dependent on the date of Pascha,  This number of weeks is different from year to year, longer when Pascha is “early”, shorter when it is “late”.  The seventeen weeks of Matthew already mentioned is the LONGEST distance possible between the Feasts.  When the calendar finds the distance shorter, gospel readings from St. Matthew are “jumped over” in deference to reading from the Gospel of St. Luke.  More on that in a moment.

Finally, with the exception of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Gospel of St. Mark is read during the season of the Great Fast on Saturdays and Sundays.

Based on all of the above, many people assume that the Lukan Jump is related to the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross. 

In fact, this is not the case.

The Elevation of the Cross falls on the “Fixed Calendar” of the Church, each year on September 14th.  In close proximity to this date is September 23rd, the Feast of the Conception of the Forerunner and Baptist John.  Since this event is best recorded in the Gospel of Saint Luke (Luke 3:23-4:1), we “jump” to the Gospel of Saint Luke with this Feast and continue in St. Luke until we approach the Great Fast the following spring.

On your calendars, the Sundays of the Gospel of St. Matthew are simply referred to as “The N^th Sunday After Pentecost,” with N being the number of weeks following Pentecost.

When you look at your calendars starting with September, this same numbering is retained, and it in fact dictates which Tone of the Week is to be used, and also which Epistle is to be read (there’s no “jump” for Epistles!).  But you’ll also see that beyond “Sunday N After Pentecost,” there will also be a note, “Y^th Luke”, indicating which of the nineteen gospels of Luke is to be read in any given week. 

Make sense?

Now you can wax profound with your Orthodox friends about when, where, and why the various Gospels are read throughout the Ecclesiastical year.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

The Weapon of Peace

 “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” (1Cor 1:23-24)

Preaching the message of our salvation in Christ has never been an easy task.  St. Paul’s words make it eminently clear that this was true in the first century, and it continues so to this very day.

The Greek word for stumbling block is skandalon, from which we derive our English word scandal. 

St. Paul explains that the Jews asked for signs because that is what the prophets gave them.  But still they didn’t believe.  Giving them a message of death by crucifixion to the One Who comes as their Savior is that scandal, for it was a shameful, unthinkable death for any human being, but pushing further to understand death for the One Who comes as God?  Totally unthinkable!  Their Messiah was (in their minds) to be exalted, not humiliated.  While we believe this as well, as Christians we understand the gulf of time between the effecting of our salvation on the Cross and the anticipated Second and Glorious Coming!

You say, “Preach to the Moslems?”  They recognize Jesus as a prophet, but their view is that the sovereignty of God would never permit His servant to suffer a shameful death, but would deliver him from any enemies.

And what of the Greeks?  St. Paul says they consider the message of the Cross to be foolishness.  Why?  Because given human logic, any god worth being called by the name has to be vastly superior to the inferior material world.  Any god who would become a mere mortal would make no sense.  Why would a god choose to take a body that must be exposed to death?  Unthinkable!  The Greek concept of eternity was via amassing knowledge sufficient to free them from the physical world, enabling them to share in a spiritual realm.

That was then.  This is now.  And what has changed?  Perhaps the “names” have—the general category of “intellectuals” would argue along the aforementioned thinking of the Greeks.  Those bounded by some form of faith that is non-Christian, Buddhist, Hindus, contemporary Jews, Baha’i, Hindus, and a long list of others have myriads of reasons to reject a god who breathes and comes to die.  And this ignores the religions that are not religions, the Deists, the Atheists, the Gnostics and others.

Only to Christians in general, and only to the Orthodox in particular, does the Cross mean life, not death.  Only to us is it an emblem of salvation, not a curse.  St. Paul expresses the division beautifully in Phil 2:5-11.  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  St. Cyril of Alexandria will end our discussion with the succinct explanation, He became like us that we might become like him. The work of the Spirit seeks to transform us by grace into a perfect copy of his humbling.

May we as faithful Orthodox Christians always look to the Cross of our Lord as the eternal symbol of His victory over death for all of creation, for all time, for all who will receive It in faith and love, embracing through It the salvation that He worked upon It!

It’s a glorious Feast!

The Forerunner

 It is good for us to try to learn as much as possible about a man who our Lord described as the greatest born of woman. (Luke 7:28) And so let us study St. John.

What things are important about this man beyond the manner of his martyrdom?

The first thing we’ve just touched upon—our Lord’s endorsement of his status.  Some ask, “Isn’t Jesus the greatest born of woman?”  The answer is no, because Jesus was not born of a woman (a married female) - He was born of a Virgin.  To illustrate the importance of the Forerunner inside the Church, we must recognize that there are six (6) feasts in the annual calendar dedicated to St. John.  In the calendar, his conception is commemorated on 23Sep, ‘the Synaxis’, 07Jan.  The second finding of his head is commemorated on 24Feb.  Third finding is 25May.  His nativity is celebrated on 24Jun. And his beheading is commemorated on 29Aug.

His parents Zachariah and Elizabeth are saints, great and holy people whose prayer to be released from barrenness was answered with the birth of the Forerunner.

Saint Elizabeth is the sister of Saint Anna, the mother of the Theotokos.  And so John is ‘family’ to our Lord!

St. John is also given the title of Prophet.  But this title is more than just a descriptive name.  He is the final (last) prophet in the Old Testament (that is BEFORE the coming of Christ).  And he is also the first prophet in the New Testament.  This has the Church describing him as a point of joining the two through this one man.

St. John is also the first martyr in Christ, giving his life about three years before the Protomartyr Stephen, who is known as the first martyr AFTER our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension.

St. John is also the first to live a fully monastic life.  For this reason he remains to this day the patron saint of all monks.  We recall in the Gospel read today the young man coming to our Lord to ask what more he needs to do to inherit eternal life, and the answer is to sell all, give to the poor, and come and follow Christ.  This is the message that changed the heart of St. Anthony the Great, leading him into the desert to imitate the life of the Forerunner.

St. John’s message was simple.  Repent!  As Forerunner, his position as such was cemented in this preaching when our Lord’s first public message was identical to John’s—Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!

St. John showed no self pride.  While he had disciples, after our Lord’s coming to him for baptism, he instructed two of his own, Andrew and Peter, to go and follow Christ.

One of the cornerstones of the monastic life is obedience.  St. John showed this totally in the interplay with our Lord when He came to John for baptism.  John spoke of his unworthiness to baptize the Lord.  Jesus instructed him to let it be for now to fulfill all righteousness.  And John obeyed!

We’ve not touched on fasting, or his manner of living.  We haven’t even mentioned Herod, and yet we’ve filled a page with accounts pointing to the worthiness of the Forerunner to be called the greatest born of woman.  St. John—intercede before the Lord for our souls!

11th Sunday After Pentecost

   We don’t need to be theologians to know what our Lord is telling us as He opens today’s Gospel reading.  A certain King wanted to settle accounts with His servants!

The “certain King” is God.  His is coming again with awesome glory and mighty power to judge the living and the dead—to settle accounts.

And my debt is huge.

I know we’ve done this before, but it bears repeating for the sake of effect.  Ten thousand talents of silver is equivalent to roughly 375 tons.  The price of silver as this is being penned is $38.32 per ounce.  That 375 tons equates to about 11 million ounces, or a monetary equivalent of just under $422 billion (with a “b”) dollars.

Why does our Lord offer an example such as this?  I think there are two reasons.

First:  In showing that the “certain King” is willing to forgive such an enormous debt, there is a loud and clear statement about the magnanimity of the King.  For someone to NOT be attached to such an incredibly large sum, He would have to be the Possessor of everything.  And so without defining God, the words show clearly that this is in fact God.

Second:  In showing the possibility of incurring a debt this large, one cannot ascribe it to the world at large.  Who could amass a debt of a half a billion dollars?  Countries do.  People don’t!  And so the parable must be pointing to something other than a financial matter.

Remember the third paragraph?

My debt is huge!  My sins are beyond numbering.  And my repentance is shallow, not commensurate with the sins I have committed.

And so, like today’s servant, my only recourse is to fall down before the King, offering the very same words as my own petition—Master, have patience with me.  In short, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!”

Now here comes the hard part.

Not unlike the servant in today’s Gospel reading, I demand recourse for sins associated with my fellow servants.  It may not be so much related to what they “owe” me.  Typically my failure in dealing with my fellow servants is judgmentalism.  “Look at what you’ve done!”  “You deserve to be punished for that!” 

Having received the great blessing, the promise that my sins will be forgiven because of my repentance, I immediately turn on others making myself judge, jury, and hangman.

And for this, I, like today’s servant, deserve the same recall before the King and to be re-sentenced to an even greater punishment.

Why is it so difficult to be loving to those who surround us, regardless of how they treat us?

St. John Chrysostom says this.  No one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays.

St. Paul speaks in numerous places about this.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if you have any grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Col 3:13)  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph 4:32)

Lord, give to me a heart that is as forgiving as it is repentant, and grant me sincere repentance while You bless me to continue in this life!