Sacramental Living

Reign of Christ Sunday
Sunday, November 23, Year of Our Lord 2008
Last Sunday of Ordinary Time

Christ our King, it is so right to give you thanks and praise always for all you do and all you are.  We give thanks for your immeasurable power at work in us to clothe us in compassion and righteousness, so that we might be fit for the kingdom which you prepared for us from the foundation of the world.  Grant us the grace to participate in that kingdom here on earth as it is with you.  We pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; one God forever and ever.  AMEN.

27th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, November 16, Year of Our Lord 2008

Merciful God, forgive us for trusting in ourselves more than you.  Show us your compassion, as we turn toward you again; remind us of your faithfulness and grant us the grace to risk our lives in you.  We like to take the reigns of life ourselves.  We can’t seem to consistently live out a cooperative faith.  But like Deborah and Barak, like the good servants our Lord spoke of, like the church at Thessalonica, fashion us to communally live in the light of the grace you have shed on us.  We pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; one God forever and ever.  AMEN.

26th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27)
Year A

Readings for the week:
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Psalm 78:1-7
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

For a people who spent a generation on the move, this text is the call to stay put in the land YHWH promised their forebears, and to serve the LORD their God alone.  Joshua reminds the people several times here to serve God alone.

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