Fifth Century Prayers

For Your Peace

Make Your tranquility, O Lord, to dwell amongst us, and Your peace to abide in our hearts. May our voices proclaim your truth, and may Your Cross be the guardian of our souls. Account us worthy, O Lord, with boldness which is of You, to offer unto You of Your grace a pure and holy prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

- Liturgy of the Nestorians

Intercession

Almighty God, we beseech You to hear our prayers for all who sin against You, or neglect to serve You, all who forget You, all who leave You out of their lives. O Lord, have mercy upon them; bestow upon us all true repentance and an earnest longing for Yourself. Promise, we ask You, O Lord, to strengthen and confirm all Your faithful people, and to lift up the light of Your Face upon them, giving them continually heavenly desires; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN

- An Ancient Collect

An Evening Thanksgiving

Accept, we beseech You, our evening thanksgiving, O You Fountain of all good, who has led us in safety through the length of the day; Who daily blesses us with so many temporal mercies and has given us the hope of resurrection to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN

- An Ancient Collect

For Blessing

Bless all who worship You, from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same. Of Your goodness, give us; with Your love, inspire us, by Your spirit guide us; by Your power, protect us; in Your mercy receive us now and always. AMEN

- An Ancient Collect

For Communicants

Hear us, O merciful Father, we most humbly beseech You, and grant to all communicants of your Church this day, true repentance and living faith. And we pray that all those who shall from time to time receive Your creatures of bread and wine, according to Your Son our Savior Jesus Christ’s Holy institution, in remembrance of His Death and Passion, may be partakers of His most blessed Body and Blood; to Whom with You and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, world without end. AMEN

- An Ancient Liturgy

For Right Living

Grant to us, Lord, We ask You, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do anything that is good without You, may by You be enabled to live according to Your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN

- Leonine Sacramentary

For Heavenly-Mindedness

Grant us, O Lord, not to mind earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away , to cleave to those that shall abide; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

- Leonine Sacramentary

God Bless American and those who protect us!

As we celebrate our independence, may we not forget to lift a prayer for our troops all around the world in harms' way, and all the of our domestic protectors - the Police, Fire Fighters, Border Patrol and so many others. No matter what your religion, have a listen to this amazing song and video "Somebody's Praying Me Through" sung by Allen Asbury.

God bless America! God bless our military! God bless those who protect us on our native soil! We are so blessed and so free because of them.

Why I Will Never Convert to Islam

Some purveyors of multiculturalism say all cultures are of equal value. I disagree. There are some cultures that are so damaging to humankind that they should be allowed to wither on the vine and die. The current tacit acceptance of terrorism and violence puts Islam on the list. Here are some reasons why I would rather die than become a Muslim:

Terrorism in the name of Islam

Attitude of supremacy of Muslims

Clear direction in Koran to kill “infidels” (like me)

Lack of equality for women

Lack of respect for women (the testimony of two women is equal to that of one man)

Acceptance of beating as an appropriate treatment of the wife

Glorification of violence and death

Training children to hate and kill

Extreme bigotry against Jews

Bigotry against Christians

Bigotry against believers of anything except Islam

Taking offense against anything that ‘offends’ Islam

Taquiya – it’s ok to lie to promote Islam

The fear of normal sexuality

Lack of tolerance for other cultures

Lack of tolerance for each other (Muslims kill more Muslims than anyone else)

Lack of willingness to accept religious freedom for others in “Muslim” countries

I’ll think of others as time goes on, but this is a formidable list

The God I worship tells me that my enemy, Satan, comes to steal, kill and destroy. From what I’ve seen of the public face of Islam, that pretty well sums it up.

Radiant

Flag Day Today

Remember to keep the troops in prayer! They fight so we can blog and live freely with honor and dignity. We owe so much to our American Soldiers. God bless America!!!

Relationship Advice

I received an e-mail from a friend of mine today. She is a mature lady like I am - a very gracious and attractive lady who has had some bad experiences in relationships. Knowing that she still needs to deal with issues in herself, she writes:

As I am relearning how to live ... I am trying to change old habits. Sometimes I may have higher expectations than I should or sometimes I have no requirements at all. SO I am taking a poll (of my friends..ed.) . How do you expect to be treated in a relationship that is exclusive. For example boyfriend/ girlfriend. What are deal breakers? What expectation is too high or too low?

Here is my reply to her. She found it helpful, and maybe some of my readers will find it useful as well:

Deal breakers.....hmmmm..........

The usual - drugs, alcoholism, unfaithfulness, laziness (no work), inability to support self much less a family no matter how nice they are, lukewarm in their faith.

Other VERY important ones.....uncontrolled anger issues, violence, unrestrained tongue, too clingy (!), Unable to get along with people, lack of the fruit of the spirit in their lives, too quick to get involved sexually, lack of respect for people and especially you, lack of respect for leadership, unsubmissive and unkind.

At our age, the men we get to know will have a trail of fruit - good and bad. My husband had a history of educational and job success and advancement, hard work, purity and innocence (amazing for a sailor). As I got to know him ( and you need time to get to know someone) I could see that he tried hard to be a good husband to his first wife.....I know this because of the way he treats me now.

My husband and I are good friends. We trust each other and respect each other as well as love each other. We recognize that we need each other but because the Lord is first in our lives, we could live without each other if need be.

A "boyfriend/girlfriend" relationship needs to grow out of friendship and mutual respect. Unfortunately, this takes time and face to face contact. I know we long for a relationship where we are special to someone....God put that in us.....but rushing and nurturing the sexual attraction and infatuation is not a good foundation for a lasting relationship. Sexual attraction is a fire that can very quickly get out of control given the right circumstances - and then you have to deal with guilt and regret. Hardly a good start for a couple that is not quite considering a marriage yet!

Think about how friends treat each other - how they talk to each other - how they work together and how they admire each other. Friends know each other's limits. Friends know what is important to the other and they seek to bless each other. Friends regard themselves, too, and keep their boundaries up so they don't lose who they are in a relationship. Friends are free to be who they are without having to change just for the other person to make them happy. Isn't that what you want in a lasting relationship?

I hope this helps.

God bless you!

Radiant Times

Giving a Damn

My best friend in Kansas sent this to me. We strain at gnats while swallowing camels, don't we:

Swallowing Camels

Sample of Daily Encounter by Dick Innes

I read the following story about how on one Sunday morning a usually long-winded pastor preached his shortest, but one of his most effective sermons ever.

He said, "My sermon this morning has three points.

"First, over three million people in the world today are homeless.

"Second, most of you don't give a d_ _ _.

"And third, it is a shame that more of you are upset by the fact that I said the word, 'd_ _ _', than by the fact that over three-million people are homeless."

I've heard that a well-known preacher did a similar thing when speaking about the tragedy of abortion in this country, only the four-letter word he used was even stronger!

Seriously, I'm not condoning preachers using these words, but how sad it is that so many of us will get considerably more upset over someone using a bad word than we do about people being homeless, about the problem of abortion, human trafficking, not to mention the lost going to hell.

Jesus said, "Woe upon you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders—hypocrites! For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden, but ignore the important things—justice and mercy and faith. Yes, you should tithe, but you shouldn't leave the more important things undone. Blind guides! You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:23-24, TLB).

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me not to be guilty of straining out gnats and swallowing camels, and help me to be concerned about the things in life that truly matter. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."

NOTE: Case in point ... when I sent this article out as a Daily Encounter one subscriber was irate at me over my use of "d_ _ _" used to illustrate the point I was making.

Democrats take a big black eye!

Husham Al-Husainy has essentially come out publicly as an enemy of America. He rants and raves in a typical Islamo-fascist style of the Orwellian Ministry of Truth - speaking "peace, peace" when, in fact, he means war. He avoids answering simple questions knowing that the clear truth would indict him as an enemy, and justifies himself by screaming that those who seek a direct answer from him are offending God Himself.

What were the Democrats thinking??? I'm going to try to get inside their heads:

I believe that they were trying to present to the world that Americans generally the Muslim faith, and that we are not afraid to engage in dialogue or to call Muslim people our friends. In a spirit of Ecumenical friendship, they were going to reach out and get an imam to pray an opening invocation for their winter meeting. What they got was a LOT more than they ever bargained for!

For years and years, the secular world view in the United States has been that all religions are equal, and (hopefully) benign. That they are to be respected and that they bring intrinsic goodness to society, such as truth, courage, honor, freedom, equality, love, peace, and prosperity. Some of these religions even create net worth to their community far beyond what ever tax breaks they might receive. The last three words, love, peace, and prosperity (the pursuit of happiness) are actually embedded in some fashion in our Constitution, and Americans have a right to pursue these values. Our founding fathers were mostly deists, and granted us exceptional freedom to pursue God in our own way, or to believe in absolutely nothing.

How far have the Democrats fallen from the freedoms given to us by our founding fathers. Democrats are normally freedom loving and encourage greater "freedoms" and rights. By embracing the values of Husham Al-Husainy, whom they received with open arms and whom they publicly defend, they have dealt a blow to themselves which will take much time to heal.

It will take a LONG time to forget the rants of denial bellowed by Imam Husham Al-Husainy

Here are some things Al-Husainy should have been asked before being allowed to pray for a national party:

These are from Debbie Schlussel's site

1) How many of your congregants are from the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil?

2) Who paid for your mosque and please provide us documentation for the financing? Was any of it from the Government of Iran?

3) Why did you hold up posters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at a protest march in memory of Yasser Arafat? Will you condemn Khomeini?

4) Did you support Yasser Arafat, for whom you led a protest march? Will you condemn Arafat?

5) Will you condemn Arafat's murder of American diplomats Cleo Noel and George Curtis Moore in Sudan?

6) Will you condemn the Iranian kidnapping and holding of Americans as hostages for 444 days by Khomeini and his puppets?

7) Where is the Zakat ["Charity"] money given by your mosque congregants going? Can you provide full documentation for where it is going and that it is not going to terrorists?

Read the rest of the questions here.

Another Article on this topic


UPDATE

More info on Al Husainy


Here is the Democratic party contact information. I have a few things to ask them and so should you.