Best Loved Prayers and Words of Wisdom. Martin Manser
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St Francis of Assisi (1181–1226)
Caring friendship
Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic priest who wrote widely on the spiritual life. After teaching for many years he left America for Canada, where he lived as pastor in a community for men and women with learning disablities.
We tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward
the weak, of the powerful toward the powerless, of the haves toward the have-nots ... Still, when we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.
Henri Nouwen (1932–1996)
Children of God
In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul urged his readers to remember that, through their faith in Jesus Christ, they have been adopted into the family of God.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8:14–17, NRSV
A chosen people
Peter’s first letter was written to both Jewish and Gentile Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor, which approximates to modern-day Turkey. His words address all who feel alienated from the world around them or who suffer persecution – they are encouraged to remember what God has done forthem and stand firm.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
1 Peter 2:9, NRSV
Christ above everything
In his letter to the church at Colossae, the apostle Paul writes to counter the claims of a rival philosophy. Early in the letter he emphasizes the supremacy of Jesus Christ.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all
creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
Colossians 1:15–18, NRSV
Christ has the keys
Isaac Watts was an evangelical leader in the period following the Puritans. He is best remembered as a hymn-writer, and especially for his hymn ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’.
Christ has the keys of death; and the gates of eternal life are
in his keeping.
Isaac Watts (1647–1748)
Christ, the Lord, is risen today
Charles Wesley wrote over 8000 hymns. This triumphant hymn was written in 1739 for use at the first worship service at the Wesleyan Chapel in London; it is often sung at Easter, but may also be used at other times of the year.
Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia! Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!
Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia! Lo! the Sun’s eclipse is over, Alleluia! Lo! he sets in blood no more, Alleluia!
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal, Alleluia!
Christ hath burst the gates of hell, Alleluia! Death in vain forbids his rise, Alleluia! Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia! Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia! Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia! Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia! Following our exalted Head, Alleluia! Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia! Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!
Hail, the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to thee by both be given, Alleluia! Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia! Hail, the resurrection, thou, Alleluia!
King of glory, Soul of bliss, Alleluia!
Everlasting life is this, Alleluia! Thee to know, thy power to prove, Alleluia! Thus to sing and thus to love, Alleluia!
Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia! Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia! Sinners to redeem and save. Alleluia!
But the pains that he endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation have procured, Alleluia! Now above the sky he’s King, Alleluia! Where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!
Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia! Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia! Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
Christian humility
The writings of Jeremy Taylor, chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud, contain what is possibly the best commendation of Christian humility.
Humility is the great ornament and jewel of the Christian
religion ... first put into a discipline and made a part of a religion by our Lord Jesus Christ ... Remember that the blessed Saviour of the world hath done more to prescribe, and transmit, and secure this grace, than any other; his whole life being a great continued example of humility, a vast descent from the glorious bosom of his Father, to the womb of a poor maiden, to the form of a servant, to the miseries of a sinner, to a life of labour, to a state of poverty, to a death of malefactors, to the grave of death, and to the intolerable calamities which we deserved.
Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)
A Christmas prayer
Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic priest who wrote widely on the spiritual life. After teaching for many years he left America for Canada, where he spent the last twelve years of his life at L’Arche community. It was here that many of his books were written.
O Lord, how hard it is to accept your way. You come to me
as a small, powerless child born away from home. You live for me as a stranger in your own land. You die for me as a criminal outside the walls of the city, rejected by your own people, misunderstood by your friends, and feeling abandoned by your God.
As I prepare to celebrate your birth, I am trying to feel loved,
accepted,