9/10/23 Through 9/16/23

 9/10/23 Through 9/16/23

Sunday

Repentance is the greatest gift

For any to receive

Correcting one that’s gone adrift

To sin now well-perceive.

So, let me see and let me hear

Rebuke with open mind.

Forgive me then and draw me near

That I, true joy may find.

Monday

Withered, misshapen, and useless are we,

In need of a Savior to set our hearts free.

Forgiving and loving of weak and depraved

Freeing of those who to sin are enslaved.

They long for the day they can walk for the lame

And leap like a stag at the sound of their name.

The deaf and the dumb are expecting the days

When they hear and they sing in the choir of praise.

So, free us no matter the day or the hour

We long for Your presence and word to devour.

Self-righteous may see an injustice by You

But Father and I have a far different view.

Tuesday

As Mary, none was ever known

As sinless and as holy shown

The purity and beauty there

Are such that man cannot compare

For there upon her tender breast

The King of kings would lay to rest

And One who made the earth and sky

Would meet her gaze with eye to eye

The Babe in arms, her little child

The greatest One, so meek and mild,

Has chosen her as Full of Grace

The fairest of our human race

Wednesday

When all of truth is thus revealed

No more lies and filth concealed.

We’ll see that blessed are the poor,

The meek and humble ones for sure.

For truth reveals the inner core,

The lustful greedy, grasping more.

The poor and meek and humble too,

Who put their faith and trust in You.

No more facades of acting plays

For truth is seen in lighted days,

And none that day, with Him compare

And none our weight of sin can bear.

But then a humble Lamb once slain

Appears to help the poor regain

The glory once in garden lost

To warm the heart and melt the frost.

For rich and haughty then will learn

The weight of what their works did earn,

Eternity where darkness reigns

And none but evil there remains.

Thursday

The cross, far more than any sign

The greatest gift for all mankind.

Such love beyond our mortal minds

The one who contemplates it finds.

There, suffering and pain is found

To loose the chains with which we're bound,

For when we gaze on love Divine

We see the Cross does love define.

As serpent on the pole was raised

And saved were all who on it gazed

The Son of God became our sin

So we might His salvation win.

So, lift it high, this Cross of love

For none on earth and none above

But One alone has conquered sin

Defeating death, so we might win.

Friday

Oh Mother of Sorrows, oh, Virgin of Grace

Please grant me a home in that heavenly place.

The years of His growing and nightly embrace

No cross, or no sorrows could ever erase.

So, confirmed in His love and convinced of the good

You trusted Him always, as always we should.

Obeying in spite of the hurt and the pain

Forever quite focused on heavenly gain.

Obtain for me now such a grace that I seek

That in time of my trial, you'll strengthen the weak,

So one day I'll look at the trial that's passed

And see that in truth, it was gold that was cast.

Exalted the ones who endure to the end

When lies are abounding, the truth they defend.

When all are the wrong, still they stick to the right

When all are in darkness, they offer the light.

You are the icon, the window above

To the land of His glory, and mercy, and love.

Make of me now an obedient child

Cleansed of my sin and all that defiled.

Saturday

For sinners all, He came to save

For there His flesh and blood He gave

And taught them how to dig below

For solid ground on which to grow.

For if we listen and obey

No flood can ever wash away

What's built with love on solid ground

For there our refuge safe is found