Deus Misereatur

  [My letter to the congregation, sent out today - 16 October 2024] Many years ago I stumbled on this ancient prayer (4 th Century) written by Ephraim of Syria, a Christian thinker. I have found it increasingly valuable, especially as it becomes progressively simple these days to fault others and spread fault-finding (the darker side of social media, 24/7 media, and the ease of the internet). But the prayer settles in where our blame-games should almost always start. Every time we point a finger, there are three more pointing back at us. And that’s how the prayer works, so to speak.   It has three section: (1) take away these faults; (2) give me those virtues; and (3) help me. It goes like this:   O Lord and Master of my life, Take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power and idle talk; But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Your servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions and not to judge my b...

[I sent this out to my congregation today in my weekly letter - 28 August 2024] Yesterday morning, as the sun was starting to rise, I was reading Joel. It’s only three chapters long, but the scene is fairly dismal. Plagues, pestilence, locusts, and other “covenant curses” God had promised in Leviticus 26 if his people were persistently unfaithful to him. That’s the sad part about Joel. All of these calamities are – in a sense – self-inflicted because God’s people have walked away from the Lord. And yet the Lord is beckoning his people to turn around: “ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster ” (Joel 2:13). To rouse the people’s return, the Lord then calls on the priests, the ministers of God, to spend some concerted time in remorse and repentant prayer. This repentant prayer is what caught my attention yesterday. It’s Joel 2:17: Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the min...