One is happy who hears and lives God's word

A woman in the crowd called out:
      How happy your mother must be,
      she bore you and fed you at her breast.
But Jesus answered:
      Happier still those
            who hear the word of God and live by it.

Luke 11:27-28
(from Thursday, 3rd week of Lent, Evening Prayer)

On writing a homily...

Come, Holy Spirit,
    fill my heart that desires to be true to You,
    kindle in me the fire of Your Love.
Send forth Your Spirit
    that I may listen to Your Thoughts,
    articulate and proclaim Your Word and only Yours
    unwaveringly and ever faithfully.
Take away
    all that gets in the way
    of the radiance in Your Truth
    and the spreading of Your Love.
Amen.

My Lord and my God, make me Yours

Today if you hear the voice of the Lord,
harden not your hearts.

Thus says the Lord,
the creator of the heavens,
who is God,
the designer and maker of the earth
who established it,
not creating it to be a waste,
but designing it to be lived in:

I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I have not spoken from hiding
nor from some dark place of the earth.
And I have not said to the descendants of Jacob,
“Look for me in an empty waste.”
I, the Lord, promise justice,
I foretell what is right.

Turn to me and be safe,
all you ends of the earth,
for I am God; there is no other!

 ~ Isaiah 45

Your love, Lord, is life to me

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.

In your compassion blot out my offense.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.

My offenses truly I know them;
my sin is always before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
what is evil in your sight I have done..

A pure heart create for me, O God,
put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
nor deprive me of your holy spirit. 

Give me again the joy of your help;
with a spirit of fervor sustain me,
that I may teach transgressors your ways
and sinners may return to you.

~ Psalm 51 

Miserere mei, Deus

Miserere mei, Deus:
secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.
Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum,
dēlē iniquitatem meam.

Have mercy on me, God,
according to your unbounded love.
And according to your abundant mercy
blot out my iniquities.  ~Psalm 51:1