Come Thou Fount (A Prayer)

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

All good things pour forth from you and they become blessings in their own good time. The forces that oppose you disguise their work as your goodness, but their efforts crumble under your mercy and eternal love. You are the source of joy, the mouth of the river of life, the wellspring of the everlasting hope.

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

I long for my soul to dance to your music, to be harmonized with you at a cellular level. Your beat, O God, is the rhythm of the desert stillness and the rush of wind through swamp reeds. Bring me into calibration with your wild cacophony and make me euphonious with your creation.

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

The flow of your grace creates the geography of my life- the high banks, the refreshing pools, the place of reorientation when I am lost. I can perceive the edge of your plans for me, by meandering by the winding gurgling of the Water of Life.

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Amen! Amen! Amen! Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life. There is no song that I would like to sing but Yours. I confess that my head turns at the strains of other notes, but they prove false every time. I rejoice in giving thanks and praise to You alone.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Shaping Spirit, I am afraid of you. I welcome you. I open myself to you through your own bidding and shaping. Make me receptive to your teaching, your tuning, your guidance, your glimpses. I wish to be part of the hymnody through which you bring freedom and restoration to the world.

Sung by flaming tongues above.

O glorious saints, you who pray for us and whose lives are now beyond our comprehension- do not cease! Your cloud of witness is a buffering reality for our souls. O angelic chorus, you who are created beings, too- knowing the pleasure of being at the service of the Holy Mystery- sing! Sing!

Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it,

I have not come to this place through my own efforts. Please, let it be that I do not leave it ever.

Mount of Thy unchanging love.

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Amen.

Crossed posted at RevGalBlogPals.org

Comments

I'm In

A few weeks ago , I was using voice-to-text to compose some prayers. After I was finished speaking the whole list, I was proof-reading the document and realized that everywhere I said “Amen”, the voice-to-text wrote “I’m in”. “Amen” essentially means “may it be so”, but what would it look like to end our prayers with “I’m in”. What would change if we rose from our knees, left our prayer closets, closed our devotionals, and moved with purpose toward the goals for which we had just prayed. Lord, in your mercy: Grant justice to the oppressed and disenfranchised (I’m in) Cast down the mighty from their thrones (I’m in) Console the grieving and welcome the prodigal (I’m in) Welcome strangers and attend to the marginalized (I’m in) Grant the space for the silenced to speak… and listen (I’m in) Fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty (I’m in) Forgive others as I am forgiven (I’m in) Be merciful as God in h...

Top Ten Things to Learn from the book of Job

Readings: Job 1:1-22; Job 38:1-11; Luke 8: 22-25 10. Job contradicts Proverbs. The writer of Proverbs offers the hope and consolation that people who live wisely and faithfully, according to the will of God, will flourish and prosper. The very first chapter of Job says: it ain’t necessarily so. You may well live righteously and with great integrity and, still, terrible things may happen. A faithful life is not an automatic buffer to calamity. Due to this contradiction between the books, both of which are categorized as wisdom literature, we are reminded of all those who have gone before us who tried to make the Bible speak with one voice. It doesn’t. The Bible has many voices, some of which are quite dissonant together, but they sing one song about the presence and providence of God. 9. Job is an old story, but a young book, relatively speaking. Since Job doesn’t mention Abraham or Moses or the laws or the Temple, some interpreters have considered it the oldest story ...

While to That Rock I'm Clinging (Epiphany 2025)

I recently read a book that contained this line, “God can only be drilled out of us, not into us. I can see that now, from a distance.” God can only be drilled out of us, not into us. The author was discussing the griefs and losses of her life, but also her awareness of the larger scope of the movement and power that carries us all, even in the difficult seasons. You do not survive these seasons by thinking there is no God unless the idea of a God who cares, who is slow to anger, who is abounding in steadfast love has been drilled out of you. How does the idea of God get “drilled out of a person”? In today’s scripture passages, we have an example of people who have held on to the majesty and mystery of God, even in times of trouble. Then we also have a person whose awareness of the Divine has been drilled out by a desire to retain power and worldly influence. The magi or wise men were probably Persian astrologers or maybe Zoroastrian priests from the same region, modern-day...

Faith, Grace, and Hope

Search This Blog