It's Hard to be Humble

“Humility is, when the other person is at fault, for us to do a bow to him saying, ‘Forgive me, my brother, I am sorry!’ before he has time to seek forgiveness. This should not seem difficult and burdensome to you. It is nothing in comparison to what Christ the Master did for us. Before the angels He stooped down and did a bow from heaven to earth; ‘He bowed the heavens and came down’ (Ps. 17:9) – God to men! Whereas you turn the world upside-down so that you don’t say one ‘sorry’! So then, where is your humility? When you humble yourself, everyone will seem saintly to you; when you are proud, everyone will seem bothersome and bad.

~Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Thanks to Christ in our Midst

Return to the Daily Office

Many of us clergy know of the Daily Office. I often wonder how diligent we are in keeping the rhythm of the prayers. That said, I wonder too, of how diligent the people of the Church are in Daily prayer and Scripture reading - not that I have done a good job in teaching it, and holding the benefits of its practice up to the people. In honesty, I have to say that I am generally very good about saying the Morning Office, so much so that I know most of it by memory. I am not so good at the Evening Office. I came across this wonderful reflection by Bishop Anthony Burton, who used to be the Bishop of Saskatchewan before taking up a new position in Dallas, Texas. From A Tribe Called Anglican, specifically HERE

When I first started this Blog I had the daily readings listed along the side of the postings. I shall try to return to the practice for those who might like to avail themselves of the resource. Lord have mercy, Brian+

Some thoughts about the daily office by Bishop Anthony Burton:

Prayer is a participation in the priestly ministry of Christ and is not a consequence of some external rule but springs from the very nature of our vocation as Christians. It is not the preserve of the clergy but is a vocation common to clergy and laity alike. This is a Biblical teaching which the Reformers understood well: it underlies Cranmer’s insistence that the daily work of prayer be taken out of the monastery and placed in the parish church.

Its daily character also underscores this high view of the priesthood of all believers. Time itself is ordered, sanctified and offered through Christ to the Father. Hooker had this to say:

“Now as nature bringeth forth time with motion, so we by motion have learned how to divide time, and by the smaller parts of time both to measure the greater and to know how long all things else endure.” (Laws, V, lxix.2)The whole Prayer Book is designed to enable the laity to fulfil their priestly vocation of prayer: the responses are to be returned by the people and not by the choir only; the prayers are generally short and contain one thought; they are in a language that all can understand; the laity are exhorted to receive their communion; the rubrics demand audibility and visible ceremonial…

and this:

The offices of the Prayer Book proceed from the belief that baptism issues in a vocation to pray in two ways. As a member of the Church, the body of Christ, we are to pray the prayers of the whole Church, publicly if possible, otherwise privately.

We are not members of the Body only at “The Gathering of the Community”. As an individual Christians, we should also have a domestic prayer life, which pertains to the particular needs and circumstances of our life as individuals and, if we have one, as part of a family. No amount of extemporary petition, barked from the back of the Church on Sundays can substitute for this. The distinction between public and private is a problem for the modern world generally. The Prayer Book tradition can help us recover the distinction.

The Prayer Book as a system of spiritual discipline is invaluable in helping us to grow to maturity in Christ. It continually reminds us that the good of the Kingdom of Heaven lies not in the devices and desires of our own hearts but in living in and by the Word of God. And it helps us to grow in community in the Body of Christ by enabling us to pray and adore in the Gospel in common.

Charles Simeon wrote that “The finest sight short of heaven would be a whole congregation using the prayers of the liturgy in the true spirit of them.” The recovery of that spirit has never been needed more than today, and yet if conferences like these are any indication, we have reason to hope that the golden age of Anglican spirituality lies not in the past but in, God willing, His the future.

Getting Ready for LENT

Reminder of some older posts on the theme of LENT

The Agesimas

Lenten Discipline

Earnest Prayer

I Also found this podcast by Matthew Gallaton helpful this morning. He speaks form an Eastern Orthodox perspective, but he gets to the matter of being a prodigal. HERE

Blessing to all as we prepare for a holy Lent. Brian+

Lost and Found

LOST:

1. Theology is not a static set of understandings which are always true in every age and every place.
2. Theology, in order to be vital living thing, must always be open to re-thinking, and re-configurations
3. The time in which we live is a new time and requires new formulations of the Christian Faith
From: "Should being Baptised be a Pre-requisite for Receiving Communion" by Yme Woensdregt in LITURGY CANADA (Issue 50, volume XIII

FOUND:

The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith:

[We believe] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father “to gather all things in one,” and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race; in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord and God and Savior and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess” to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send “spiritual wickednesses,” and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love — some from the beginning [of their lives], and others from [the day of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.

As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions of the world. But as the sun, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shines everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these — for no one is greater than the Master; nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it.
Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-202 AD), in “Against Heresies” 1:10:1-2

Remembering God

Lately I have been preaching and reflecting upon the Remembrance of God, and that such remembrance is vital in spiritual transformation. I came across these thoughts regarding the remembrance of God and the use of the Jesus Prayer in aiding the exercise. Brian+

From The Orthodox Way of Life

The true path to union with God is one that involves the continual remembrance and God and always acting on the guidance of our conscience. It is only in this way that we can do as we pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." One of the most fundamental practices to make this a reality in ones life is prayer. Saint Theophan says prayer is "a spiritual barometer for self-observation." In prayer we find out how "high or low our spirit has gone." A sound prayer life involves regular morning and evening prayers. This is supplemented with the ongoing repetition in our minds of the Jesus Prayer so that we attain continual remembrance of God through unceasing prayer.


Saint Theophan offers us some advice about prayer.
He says,

The essence of prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God...You must train yourself in remembrance of God, and the means for doing this... is short prayer, in which you continually repeat the thought, "Lord have mercy!" "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!"

In addition we need to train ourselves to focus on pray and not to let our minds wander. Saint Theophan address this as follows:

Make this your rule: always be with the Lord in mind and heart; never allow the thoughts to wander, but when they do, call them back again and force them to stay at home in the house of the heart and speak with the most sweet Lord. Once you have made this rule, you must force yourself to carry it out faithfully.

My own spiritual father gave me this simple advice when I discussed this common problem with him, "Just decide to reject them! When you do, they will stop." Prayer involves giving your full attention to God alone.


From my personal experience, the practice of the Jesus Prayer in conjunction with controlling the thoughts is the essence of a fundamental spiritual practice that will lead you continually closer to God. Everything will follow with ease once you have engaged in a regular practice of the Jesus Prayer. Once the mind has been conditioned to remember the prayer in all situation, then God will be in your presence and there is time for you to listen to your conscience and to act with wisdom instead of passion.

Candlemas vs Groundhog Day

This is an article that I wrote for the Anglican Life publication (Newfoundland and Labrador's Anglican paper). It will appear in the March issue

Rev. Greg Mercer recently (February 2011 Issue) presented his impassioned displeasure of a Biblical literalist publication dropped into many mailboxes throughout the Province, that denounced Christmas as Biblically unjustifiable and even pagan in origins: thus true Christians should not celebrate it. I couldn’t help but to connect the whole affair with the recent celebration of Groundhog Day. That might seem to be a strange twist, but hear me out.
Many of our parents would be able to relate to us this old poem, or some closely related version of it:
If Candlemas Day is cold and glum, the rest of Winter is yet to come.
If Candlemas Day is fair and fine, the worst of Winter is left behind.
Not that long ago, Candlemas day was what today’s Groundhog Day is, but that the day, in folklore had become a predictor of the weather is not important. What needs to be noted is that February 2 was known in the mind of the people as Candlemas Day, NOT Groundhog Day. In other words, the day was rooted in Christian memory. Now it has been ‘paganized,’ for no good purposes than a silly news story and mid-winter humor.
Candlemas, in its origins, is rooted in the development of the Church Year. It is exactly forty days after Christmas, and celebrates the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and the Purification of the Virgin Mary. The feast became known as Candlemas after the development of the Blessing of the Candles to be used in the Church for the coming year. This arose from the Gospel reading for the Feast Day where St. Simeon says that Jesus would be, “…a Light to lighten the Gentiles.” Celebrating such an event is of far greater benefit to those of the Christian faith than wondering if a groundhog in the United States will cast a shadow.
I agree with the Biblical Literalists that Christmas is not established by the Scriptures, but because they do not have a developed understanding of the living witness of the Body of Christ, His Church, they cannot understand the validity and importance of the Nativity Feast in the Life of the Church and Christian formation. Any brief research of the origins of Christmas will reveal that it was a very deliberate placement by the Church of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at the same time of the Roman Pagan festival of the Sun. Thus Christmas is not a feast of Pagan origins: it is a supreme example of how a Christian Feast can and did replace a pagan feast. The Church Year with its rhythms of Feasts and Fasts developed very quickly throughout Christianity, and for the express purpose of keeping Christ and the Biblical witness in the minds and hearts of those who would come to Christ in and through His Church. Let us understand that when we forget God and His Christ we become pagans, or worst, but when we remember Him we are transformed. Knowing this the Church very deliberately overshadowed a pagan festival with a Christian Festival, and good on the Church!
That being said, the Biblical Literalists are making a good point in noting that Christmas is very quickly becoming pagan, not unlike Candlemas Day is now Groundhog Day. And this is because we are forgetting Christ as revealed in the Church and the Bible. As Anglican’s I believe we must return to the roots of our Biblical and Liturgical witness, to deliberately engage in the Feasts and Fasts of the Church because they help us to remember Christ, and thus be transformed into His likeness, and light.
Lord have Mercy, Brian

Collects for Holy Innocents (Dec 28)

From the BCP

O ALMIGHTY God, who out of the mouths
of babes and sucklings hast ordained
strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by
their deaths: Mortify and kill all vices in us,
and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the
innocency of our lives, and constancy of our
faith, even unto death, we may glorify thy holy
Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
whose children suffered at the hands of Herod,
receive, we pray, all innocent victims
into the arms of your mercy.
By your great might frustrate all evil designs
and establish your reign of justice, love, and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Collects for St. John the Evangelist

From the BCP

MERCIFUL Lord, we beseech thee to cast
thy bright beams of light upon thy Church,
that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy
blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John may
so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may
at length attain to the light of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the BAS

Shed upon your Church, O Lord,
the brightness of your light,
that we being illumined by the teaching
of your apostle and evangelist John,
may walk in the light of your truth,
and come at last to the fullness of eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Christmas, St. Stephen's Day, and Holy Innocents

Hot on the heels of Christmas are the Holy days of St. Stephen (December 26) and Holy Innocents (December 28). It seems most peculiar that the Church (Roman, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican) would have such ‘downer’ days after the great feast of the Nativity. As Anglicans we need to look at the Collects of the Church for all three of these special days if we are to understand why they follow the joyous ‘high of Christmas.’ Further to this, the placement of St. Stephen’s and Holy Innocents reveals a clear understanding of Anglican spirituality that calls us to deeper communion with the LORD through worship and personal transformation.
St. Stephen was a young man called into the diaconate of the Church to help solve some apparent injustices in the support being offered to the widows of the Church. He was bold of speech among the people of Jerusalem and this caused a riot leading to his being stoned to death. During his last few breaths he asked the LORD to forgive his enemies. Herein lies the intent of the Collect of St. Stephen’s Day

GRANT, O Lord, that in all our sufferings
here upon earth, for the testimony of thy
truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and
by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed;
and, being filled with the Holy Spirit, may learn
to love and bless our persecutors, by the example
of thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed
for his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who
standest at the right hand of God to succour all
those that suffer for thee, our only Mediator and
Advocate. Amen.

In today’s culture we have romanticized the Christmas Story, even relegated it to a myth status, that has reduced the Incarnation to a warm fuzzy story meant to invoke pleasant happy, feelings. This is hardly the sentiment revealed in the Scriptures, nor should it ever become the sentiment of our Christian witness, personally, and corporately in the liturgy of our worship. The Nativity is not just about the Second person of the Trinity taking on human flesh in order to die on the Cross for our sins. It also is the LORD’s example to us, so that we might take up God’s Spirit to die to the sinful desires in ourselves. Let us not belittle the courageous humility of Christ needed to take on human flesh. Nor should we belittle the courageous humility we will need to take on the fullness of the Holy Spirit to live like Christ. As HE is the LIGHT of the World, we are called to be lights in the world.
This is found in the important words of the Collect of St. Stephen’s Day. It is about example and humility. Stephen looked up to heaven as we too should. Stephen loved his persecutors by praying for them and forgiving them, as we too should. And finally to look to Christ to provide holy comfort (succour) to those, and we, who will suffer to live the example of Christ, as Stephen did.
Again the tragic story of the death of the Holy Innocents slaughtered by Herod’s henchmen is there to remind us of the reality of the evil in the world and how we are to respond to it. The collect says

O ALMIGHTY God, who out of the mouths
of babes and sucklings hast ordained
strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by
their deaths: Mortify and kill all vices in us,
and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the
innocency of our lives, and constancy of our
faith, even unto death, we may glorify thy holy
Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Here we affirm nobody is lost in God’s purpose to be glorified in and through us: from innocent babies to the poorest of the poor, to kings and rulers. As Christ glorified the Father in the humility of His death so too did the Innocents in their tragic deaths. Again the example is there to draw us to a deeper walk of faith. Herod’s evilness calls us to beware of ‘all vices in us,’ for only by grace and mercy do we walk in holiness and righteousness. Evil is never far from the human heart, even our own hearts. Finally as Christ calls us to be little children in order to enter the Kingdom of God, so to we look to live in innocency of life (holiness), and to be consistently faithful unto death.
Now we see the connect to the Christmas Collect,

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only
Begotten Son to take our nature upon him,
and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin:
Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy
children by adoption and grace, may daily be
renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same
our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth
with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God,
world without end. Amen.

In order to live regenerate transformed lives, lives that reflect the life of Christ, we’ll need daily renewal in the Holy Spirit, and the witness of Scripture as evidenced in the life of Stephen, and the Innocents, and predominantly the witness of the humility of Christ helps us in this change.
There is nothing light and trite about the spirituality of this Scriptural and Anglican approach. It is challenging, even daunting, to surrender to the ways of Christ. It is counter-intuitive and counter-cultural. But it is glory and honour and Life, for it is God’s holy will for us all. There is a desire in all of us to want worship that makes God interesting to us, but in worship we are called to make ourselves interesting to God. This is the focus of classical Anglican spirituality, a spirituality that we must never lose for it is of God, and it is Scriptural. It is a spiritual approach bent on our regeneration and transformation so that we might glorify God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Brian+

Collects for Christmas Day

From the BCP

O GOD, who makest us glad with the yearly
remembrance of the birth of thy only Son
Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive
him as our Redeemer, we may with sure confidence
behold him when he shall come again to
be our Judge; who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty God,
you wonderfully created
and yet more wonderfully restored our human nature.
May we share the divine life of your Son Jesus Christ,
who humbled himself to share our humanity,
and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Collect for the Feast Day of St. Thomas

From the BCP

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, who for the
more confirmation of the faith didst suffer
thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy
Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly, and
without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus
Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be
reproved. Hear us, 0 Lord, through the same
Jesus Christ, to whom, with thee and the Holy
Spirit, be all honour and glory, now and for
evermore. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty and everliving God,
who strengthened your apostle Thomas
with faith in the resurrection of your Son.
Strengthen us when we doubt,
and make us faithful disciples
of Jesus Christ our risen Lord;
who with you, O Father, and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns eternally. Amen

I find it interesting that the BCP places the Feast of St. Thomas just before the Birth of Jesus. It is as if we are to confront our doubt at the very beginning of the Church Year, within the Season of Advent: as if, to doubt the Incarnation, is to doubt the Resurrection. May our celebration of the Birth of Christ be filled with the true joy, hope, and love that is born out of belief in the actual, factual event of the Holy Nativity, and lived in vibrant faith.
Brian+

Collects for Advent 4

From the BCP

RAISE up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy
power, and come among us, and with great
might succour us; that whereas, through our sins
and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in
running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful
grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver
us; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit
livest and reignest, one God, world without end.
Amen.

From the BAS

Heavenly Father,
who chose the Virgin Mary, full of grace,
to be the mother of our Lord and Saviour,
now fill us with your grace,
that we in all things may embrace your will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Good and Evil

I think evil is always small, and that good is infinite. Evil closes itself to God and thus becomes even smaller; Good opens itself to God and thus becomes infinite. Evil cannot become so large as to fill even the universe. God became so small that He could fill Hell and then burst it asunder because it could not contain Him. Every good deed will have eternal remembrance, but even the largest deeds of the evil will be forgotten.
Fr. Stephen Freeman

Collects for Advent 3

From the BCP

O'LORD Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming
didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way
before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards
of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and
make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the
disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy
second coming to judge the world we may be
found an acceptable people in thy sight; who
livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

From the BAS

God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

O Christmas Tree

“I suspect that the custom of decorating a tree at Christmas time is not simply a custom which came to us from the West and which we should replace with other more Orthodox customs. To be sure, I have not gone into the history of the Christmas tree and where it originated, but I think that it is connected with the Christmas feast and its true meaning.

First, it is not unrelated to the prophecy of the Prophet Isaiah:
 ‘There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots’ (Is. 11:1). St. Cosmas the poet had this prophecy in mind when he wrote of Christ as the blossom which rose up out of the Virgin stem from the stump of Jesse. The root is Jesse, David’s father, the rod is King David, the flower which came from the root and the rod is Theotokos. And the fruit which came forth from the flower of the Panagia is Christ. Holy Scripture presents this wonderfully. Thus the Christmas tree can remind us of the genealogical tree of Christ as Man, the love of God, but also the successive purifications of the Forefathers of Christ. At the top is the star which is the God-Man (Theanthropos) Christ.

Then, the Christmas tree reminds us of the tree of knowledge as well as the tree of life, but especially the latter. It underlines clearly the truth that Christ is the tree of life and that we cannot live or fulfill the purpose of our existence unless we taste of this tree, ‘the producer of life’. Christmas cannot be conceived without Holy Communion. And of course as for Holy Communion it is not possible to partake of deification in Christ without having conquered the devil when we found ourselves faced with temptation relative to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, where our freedom is tried. 

We rejoice and celebrate, because ‘the tree of life blossomed from the Virgin in the cave’.

”

Excerpt from: “The Feasts of the Lord: An Introduction to the 12 Feasts and Orthodox Christology” by Metropolitan of Nafpatkos Hierotheos Vlachos – November 1993
.

Collects for Advent 2

From the BCP

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy
Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read,
mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by
patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may
embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of
everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our
Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

From the BAS

Almighty God,
who sent your servant John the Baptist
to prepare your people to welcome the Messiah,
inspire us, the ministers and stewards of your truth,
to turn our disobedient hearts to you,
that when the Christ shall come again to be our judge,
we may stand with confidence before his glory;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Feast Day of St. Andrew (November 30)

Collect from the BCP

ALMIGHTY God, who didst give such grace
unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that
he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus
Christ, and followed him without delay: Grant
unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy
word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently
to fulfill thy holy commandments; through the
same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collect from the BAS

Almighty God,
who gave your apostle Andrew
grace to believe in his heart
and to confess with his lips that Jesus is Lord,
touch our lips and our hearts
that faith may burn within us,
and we may share in the witness of your Church
to the whole human family;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Advent's offertory Sentence

I couldn't help but to connect these two together when I heard the offertory sentence from the BCP at this morning's Eucharist.

Advent. As we have opportunity, let us do
good unto all men; and especially unto them that
are of the household of faith. Galatians 6. 10

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

~ Mother Teresa

Collect for First Sunday of Advent

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may
cast away the works of darkness, and put
upon us the armour of light, now in the time of
this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ
came to visit us in great humility; that in the
last day, when he shall come again in his glorious
Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal; through him
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy
Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

Christ the king

"For God indeed is said to rule as King when nothing worldly meddles in the governing of our souls and when in every respect we live not of this world."
Blessed Theophylact