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Long before the avalanche of self-help books and the current fad for life coaches, there were wisdom teachers. They used Proverbs, an ancient form of meme. Here’s one of them: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” (Proverbs 25.11)

Trust, community confidence, and neighbourliness depend on agreed standards of truth and sincerity in our words. Words ‘fitly spoken’ clear up misunderstandings, explain situations clearly and truthfully, and reassure, encourage or support people by communicating well. In our workplace, circles of friends, family and neighbourhood, wouldn’t it be great to be recognised as those whose words are ‘fitly spoken’?

So it’s quite a thing when someone, who works in one of the largest UK Financial Services companies, wins an award for sincerity and integrity. The award is based on peer nominations, accompanied by written commendations. Part of the parchment reads: “This Award celebrates exceptional individuals who embrace [our] core value of ‘Sincerity’ by communicating truthfully and openly…and who are known for doing the right thing.”

The award winner is one of my friends. I’m not surprised at the award, nor at the full inbox of personal testimonies about his positive impact on those around him. His integrity and sincerity, his words ‘fitly spoken,’ create an ethos that encourages similar behaviour in others.

Mind you, he doesn’t think he deserves any of this He’s embarrassed by the award. Humility is another one of his strong suits! In a culture where truth is too often negotiable, by character and reputation this person makes integrity and sincerity attractive virtues. According to the ancient wisdom teacher, he is “an apple of gold in a setting of silver.”

Monday

Proverbs 11.1 “The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.”

Surely this isn’t about God as the Weights and Measures Ombudsman? Well, actually it is! Holiness and righteousness are not just about our private devotions, but about our standards of behaviour in public. Our love for Jesus is demonstrated by our heart’s affections and commitments; but also by performing actions and practices consistent with love for Jesus. Remember Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” Honesty in how we use our money is basic and persuasive evidence that we take seriously Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbours.

Tuesday

Proverbs 11.2 “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

One of the more obvious signs of pride is that the proud person is often unaware of their own arrogance! Entitlement is a built in sense of superiority to others. Paul warned. “Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, rather think of yourselves with sober judgement.” (Romans 12.3) Wisdom is based on how we respond to life experiences, what we learn from them, and that takes a willingness to learn, to know ourselves well enough to accept that sometimes we are wrong. Humility is shown in that readiness to listen to God, to our own heart, and to our life.

Wednesday

Proverbs 11.3 “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”

This verse describes a collision of moral opposites. Integrity is about truthfulness and consistency of character, so that a person’s behaviour is known to be trustworthy, so reliable it becomes predictable. That’s what good character is. Duplicity is the skill of deceit, being two or even three-faced, depending on whose company we are in. Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no’. He was talking about an oath taken in court. But the words can also test our trustworthiness to be, and do, and speak in ways that are ‘upright’. Duplicity is destructive of trust, an acid in the soul.

Thursday

Proverbs 11.4 “Wealth is worthless on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”

“You can’t take it with you” is one of those folk proverbs that at least recognises the limitations of money and possessions. That’s why Jesus encouraged us not to store up on earth, as if that was a permanent arrangement! Treasure in heaven is what lasts. This proverb places huge value on righteousness, those ways in which we have made a difference in the lives of others by compassion, generosity and care for justice. Yes, for the Christian what delivers from death is faith in Christ and trust in God’s grace. But faith has practical outcomes, visibly evident in the life we then lead. 

Friday

Proverbs 11.5 “The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness.”

This is wisdom at its most practical. A straight way is walked by those whose characteristics are already mentioned – humility, honesty, integrity, right priorities. The metaphor of the straight path, contrasted with the crooked path is very common in the Old Testament. Torah, the Law, is itself the path of righteousness, and obedience is to walk the straight path. Wickedness carries within it the seeds of its own destruction – as another Proverb says, the wicked get caught in their own trap.

Saturday

Proverbs 11.6 “The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires.”

Many of these proverbs were aimed at preparing people for public life. Wisdom is a process of learning to take responsibility, to act responsibly, and to be an influence for good wherever God places us. “The unfaithful” is a description of those who can’t be trusted, who break promises, who look after themselves, and who never take responsibility for their own actions. To be “trapped by evil desires” is to be a slave of our own appetites. According to Proverbs, that’s no way to live. True freedom comes when we give ourselves to the service of God who is righteous and faithful and who will “lead us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

Sunday

Proverbs 11.7 “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes, all he expected from his power comes to nothing.”

You can’t read Proverbs without bumping hard into politics, just as surely as you will bang your knee on the heavy coffee table if you walk across the room without putting the light on! This verse is about the folly of putting our trust in powerful people, who, when they die, their power dies with them. Israel had seen this time and again. This is the distilled essence of Wisdom teaching: only God is worthy of our ultimate trust. And that God is righteous, faithful and without injustice. Christians of all people know that our hope is in God, and in his Son Jesus raised by the power of the Spirit. When it comes to power, we look to the Lamb in the midst of the throne.    

Monday

Psalm 86.11 “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth.”

Many of the saints pray that they might have a teachable heart. To be teachable is to be humble. You can’t be both teachable and a know all. The Psalm-poet has his priorities right. To be open to the teaching of the Spirit, receptive to the word of God, obedient to the Holy Spirit; these are the dispositions of a teachable heart and a mind attuned to the will of God. This verse is a prayer that we will listen, learn and love the truth of God, and then be willing to walk in that truth as our way of life.

Tuesday

Psalm 86.11b “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”

I love the Scottish word for a divided heart – ‘swithering’! Those moments or even hours when we can’t make up our minds one way or the other. An undivided heart is one that knows its own mind! Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard wrote, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” That’s just another way of saying “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” To fear God’s name is to pray for the grace of undivided loyalty to the God whose love to us is faithful, and whose promises are to be trusted.

Wednesday

Psalm 86.12 “I will praise you, O Lord with all my heart. I will glorify your name for ever”

The Psalm poet knows his spiritual psychology. Praise that is heartfelt, unqualified, and arising from gratitude, is the way we express our love to God. No half measures – with all my heart, and for ever. I know. None of us can manage full intensity all the time. We sleep, eat, work, play, meet friends, and do all the things that life requires of us just to make it work. But when it comes to praise, nothing is to be held back. No matter how long we live, praising and thanking God, and uplifting God’s name will always be the goal of worship and the theme tune of our living.

Thursday

Psalm 86.5 “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.”

This is the God we praise and thank, whose name we never tire of glorifying. The older phrase “abounding in steadfast love” conveys clearly the utter reliability of the love of God. The lovely Hebrew word ‘hesed’, contains a cluster of meanings; faithful in love, dependable like a friend, merciful to the needy and forgiving to the penitent. It’s one of the favourite Hebrew words used to describe the heart of God. In the gift of God’s only Son, we have been shown what ‘hesed’ looks like in a fully human life.

Friday

Psalm 86.4 “Bring joy to your servant, for to you O Lord, I lift up my soul.”  

Prayer is never occasional in the Psalms. They are full of it – petition and complaint, praise and thanksgiving, confession and penitence – it’s all poured out. The psalm-poet is never embarrassed to be asking, pleading, or arguing with God. Never slow to open up about whatever concerns him – enemies, his own depression, anger, shame, his despair about the state of his world. But again and again, as he lifts up his soul in all the turmoil, he comes back to the reason for joy – the steadfast love of the Lord. Joy is God’s gift, kindled in the heart, then taking hold of the mind in renewed trust.

Saturday

Psalm 86.15 “But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.”

This verse is like a revision exercise. If the exam questions was: “Give examples of the characteristics of God that the Psalm-poet thinks important?” Well, then, you could be quite confident of a secure A grade if your answer was based around verse 15. Memorise this verse and you will have internalised a robust theology of the enduring faithfulness of God to all his people. Slow to anger is an important balancing corrective – God’s love is not indulgence overdosing on sentiment. All the gifts of God’s grace in Christ are freighted with the demands of holy love, including the call to holiness of heart and life.

Sunday

Psalm 86.17 “Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.”

When did you last mention your enemies in your prayers? I guess like me, you don’t want to think you have any enemies – not really. Maybe so. But most of us have to deal with difficult people, workplace tensions, family fall-outs. Few of us can claim that we are universally popular and liked. What this verse does is bring all the wrong relationships into the presence of God to be honestly faced. When Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who give you a hard time”, he wasn’t speaking hypothetically. One reliable sign of God’s goodness is the grace to forgive those who wrong us, and the help and comfort of God is best experienced in a heart that seeks to mirror to others, God’s ways with us – ‘compassionate and gracious.’ The Psalm-poet isn’t always right in what he asks – but God can always be trusted to adjust the answer to serve God’s ways of justice, compassion, peace and yes, goodness!  

When I need to find my way again, in my mind and in my heart, I instinctively go looking for the words of Jesus. I love the far-seeing vision of Isaiah and stand beside him gazing and trying to see what he sees. Who cannot be moved by the emotional honesty of the Psalms, giving words to our feelings and prayers to our thoughts? Over the years I've spent ages listening to Paul at his most passionate and argumentative, often enough being willing to hold his jacket as he fights for the truth about the gospel of Jesus. And I regularly climb the mountain of the Fourth Gospel to watch again the strange and beautiful glory of the Fourth Gospel, as the Light of the world dawns yet again above the mundane limits of my personal horizons.

But when what I need is a re-orientation of the heart, a reminder of the organising principles that shape my thoughts, I go looking for the words of Jesus. Yes, I know I've already said that, but hearing and doing the words of Jesus always helps me ask the right questions about how to live faithfully as a follower of Jesus in a world that is fluid, unpredictable, beyond my control, and is the given time and place in which I live.

This started very early in my Christian life. Converted in my mid teens, one of my first 'achievements' was to memorise the Sermon on the Mount in the old King James Version. Those rhythms of language still push to the fore when I'm quoting the Beatitudes, the Antitheses and especially The Lord's Prayer which still only 'feels right' when I speak it in that version complete with each Thou, Thee and Thine! I spent the first two years as a probationer minister doing a thorough exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount as my major project. Ever since, for well over 40 years, I've kept up with both the scholarship and the pastoral and spiritual treatments of The Sermon on the Mount.

Against this background, during this week of seismic change in the geo-political maps, the arrival of a new book on the Beatitudes seems more providential than coincidental. The Beatitudes are about the Kingdom of God. The dispositions and life situations they describe are counter cultural, and in our politically charged world, counter-intuitive. Meekness? Are you kidding? Where does meekness ever get you when life is all about making deals? Blessed are the poor? Really? Have you ever been down to your last slice of bread with hungry children and no money? And as for being merciful, if what is meant is letting people off with what they deserve, what's the good of that? 

And so on. And on. Jesus' words are not meant to be self-help one liners towards being successful. In a world that has always had to deal with the use and abuse of power, the Beatitudes can read like a charter for the bullies. Not so. A year or two after the Beatitudes were spoken, Jesus added to Pilate's problems: "My kingdom is not of this world." In the face-off between Pilate and Jesus, for Pilate it was about control, expediency and power assertion.

The irony is, Pilate was never in control; indeed as John tells it the trial of Jesus becomes the trial of the powers that be, a test of the institutions of control. In the ways of the world power is structured, divided, and given executive functions over others. Those are the ways of the world and its kingdoms. But their power games are irrelevant to One who says, "My kingdom is not of this world."

What kind of Kingdom then? Back to the Sermon on the Mount, and especially the Beatitudes. Whose is the kingdom of heaven? Who will be shown mercy? Who will inherit the land and the earth? Who shall be comforted when life goes wrong? The ones who seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. And that brings us back to where we are in the here and now of our lives. 

At a time when power and authority are again being centralised, and when military power is an early response to conflicting interests, to whose kingdom do we owe our heart's allegiance? When economic power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer people, and the global economy is destabilised and living standards uncertain, what does it mean to be merciful, compassionate, care for the poor, speak up for the welfare of a planet being stripped of the means of survival?

There are no easy answers. It will take commitment to contemplative prayer before God, imaginative intercession for a world of kingdoms hell-bent on growing in power, ways of being that take their inspiration and empowerment from Christ crucified and risen in whom power has been redefined, refocused and set loose in the world through resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and ultimately in the coming of Christ to redeem and renew Creation. The Beatitudes are unmistakably eschatological in their perspective and promise. But they are also descriptions of those who seek to follow faithfully after Jesus, as ideal disciples in the here and now of our days. 

Monday

Psalm 34.12-14 “Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

These words could be standing orders for every fractious Church Meeting, the rules of engagement for family arguments, the ethical boundaries of political discourse, or, as they were intended, wise counsel for how to have a peaceful life. Peace doesn’t just happen. We build peace, maintain peace, and restore peace. To seek and pursue peace is to make sure our own character and intention honours truth, shows respect for others, and we act as “ministers of reconciliation,” that is, peacemakers.   

Tuesday

Psalm 85.10 “Love and faithfulness meet together; justice and peace have embraced.”

The Psalm poet links four words into a chain of virtues ending in peace. He imagines faithful love and peace with justice embracing, and the result is human flourishing. Did the Psalm poet imagine the dancing of two pairs, the celebration of each human community shaped and moved by people learning to love each other, growing in trust and co-operation, acting with justice and a commitment to what is right, and so discovering that peace is possible? This is not a pipe dream – it is the vision of a poet who always thinks the impossible is possible because God is part of every equation!

Wednesday

Isaiah 32.17 “The fruit of righteousness will be peace, the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence for ever. “

Righteousness is a rich and complex word. When Jesus said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”, he was speaking of those who wanted to live in faithful obedience and loving service before God. But in a world of injustice, where much is unrighteous – when human life and community is broken by injustice and oppression, where so much is not right and therefore not righteous, what are we to do? We come before our Father in prayer, hungering and thirsting for justice and right, believing that we shall have our fill of the fruit of righteousness, as Jesus said.

Thursday

Isaiah 55.12 “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

These words were written to people in exile, for two generations cut off from their family, culture, and religious roots. Every day and everywhere Babylonian gods and temples reminded them they belonged to someone else. Except, no they don’t! God hasn’t given them up. Despite their fear, oppression and lost hope, they are God’s people, they will go home, and it will be soon. They will be “led forth in peace.” Isaiah is the prophet who makes peace sound possible, because he has an enlarged vision of God. The whole creation will celebrate the peace of God’s liberated people!

Friday

Isaiah 57.19 “Peace, peace, to those far and near” says the Lord. “And I will heal them.”

This is a promise to those of a contrite heart, those weighed down with guilt, locked into a sense of shame, anxious and regretful and wishing they could rewind and do things differently. Forgiveness is the healing of the heart, the closing of wounds, and the restoring of health in our relationships – to God, and to each other. However far we feel we have drifted from God, he speaks peace when we take the first step home. If I remember right, Jesus told a story about that kind of thing!

Saturday

Isaiah 57.20-21 “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

No rest for the wicked! Now used to describe working hard to get things done. But Isaiah was saying there’s no peace for those who build life on greed, dishonesty, power games, lying, and using and abusing others. Like a stormy sea, wicked actions dredge up the worst of those who do them. No, Isaiah warns, there can be no peace with a holy and just God for those who make a career out of selfishness, dishonesty, hurtful behaviours, and other ways of damaging the social fabric around them. The peace of forgiveness is impossible for those who think they have no need of it!

Sunday

Numbers 6.24-26 “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. (King James Version)

In 17^th Century language, this has become one of the most beloved of biblical Benedictions. It asks the blessings of God’s protective care, the shining of the light of God’s love in the face of Jesus Christ, the enfolding of grace that enables and guides, and the gift of peace. In the end, the peace we need and the peace we seek, is that of an existence under the light of God’s presence, “kept by the power of God.”

I was on holiday for a few days this week? Should you switch off the news when you go on holiday? Is it possible to relax while given multiple reminders every day of the lethal efficiency of drones and missiles? All our devices with screens provide images, clips and comment on the sheer Hell people have to live through in the middle East, in Ukraine, Yemen, and any number of other places we will never visit, but whose nightmares haunt our imaginations, fed by the perpetual news machine.

I was on holiday for a few days this week. One of the favourite countries for Europeans to visit for their holidays, was inundated with floods that have so far killed over 200 people, destroyed towns and communities, and brought unforeseen misery to tens of thousands of people. A week ago these same people were happily living their lives oblivious of any imminent threat to their lives and families. Graphic footage exposes again the fragility of our security, and the uncertainty of every day.

I was on holiday for a few days this week. For the first time in their history the football team I support has played 16 matches without defeat. Aberdeen's biggest game so far was on Wednesday, when I was on holiday, and when full time came the glow of contentment was a holiday in itself! In addition, we were in a favourite place, the food was plentiful and high quality, all was geared to the comfort and convenience of the guests. As usual, and as expected, we have come back refreshed and with some good memories.

But. There was no holiday for people in parts of Spain, or Lebanon, or Israel, or Gaza, or Ukraine, or Russia, or Yemen. I can't help that – and that's the dilemma. We live within human limits, and we can't fix the world. Yet as a Christian I try to obey two imperatives: first to be a good steward of the life I have been given, the call and commission as a follower of Jesus to be and to share and to live visibly and audibly the love of God; second, to carry in my heart the pain and brokenness of the world and lay it before the throne of grace where we are promised, there is grace to help in time of need.

In other words, whatever is going on in the wider world, I have to live faithfully in the time and place where God has placed me. Yet at the same time, by prayer and intercession I am called to transcend the human limitations of time and space, and pray with patient and unrelenting hopefulness for the world I see on the screens of my computer, phone and TV. Even on holiday.

No I can't fix the world. Yes, we all are limited by our humanity, and the unalterable given that is our time and our place in the world and in God's purpose. Joy, gratitude, rest, the capacity to lose ourselves in beauty, fun, good company, satisfying food – these are all blessings, and they come together in a good holiday. So why not ignore the news for three days and give yourself over to well earned rest, and give your heart and brain a holiday as well?

But for good or ill, I refuse to switch off from the realities of the wider world, as experienced by all those other people who share this planet as their home. Does that 'spoil' the holiday? Perhaps. Then again, there is something quite specifically Christian in refusing to give the pain of the world a three day body swerve – it's called loving our neighbour, or faithful compassion in Jesus' name. Perhaps we can never have unalloyed, unspoilt joy, or total rest, even if we shut out the realities of war, flood, famine and cruelty.

For the Christian heart and mind, there is no firewall that protects from the harms let loose in the world. Only the call to bear the sorrows of the world to the throne of grace, to take up the cross daily by remembering why the cross was necessary in the first place, and to bear the sorrows and the cross strengthened in the hope of the risen Lord. We are a resurrection people; we believe that death is defeated and life is let loose; we pray because we are not fatalists who think ourselves impotent and the world beyond redemption. Why? Because God is not impotent, and because of the power of eternal love and sovereign purpose the world is not beyond redemption! We are followers of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ; we are called by the grace of God to bear witness to the Gospel; we are empowered by the Spirit to pray, even when we have no words of our own. 

Prayer is the gift, and the burden, of holding the weight of the world's suffering, while kneeling before the throne of grace, and joining our intercessions with those of the interceding Son who sits at the right hand of the Father. From such a gift, and such a burden, there is no holiday; simply the promise of the God of hope: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15.13) Or so, at least, it seems to me.     

Monday

Proverbs 12.25 “An anxious heart wears you down, but a kind word uplifts the heart.”

We’re all familiar with that background uncertainty about how life is, that easily slips into worry, often about things we can’t do anything about. Faith, confidence, belief and trust, – these are the words we use to describe the ideal Christian disposition as we make our way through the days and years of our lives. But we are human, and all of us vulnerable to the triggers of anxiety. The wisdom of our verse is that it both recognises the downward drag of worry, and encourages us to look out for each other and be the upward pull that makes a difference to someone else’s day.

Tuesday

Philippians 4.6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

We can’t usually talk ourselves out of worrying, but Paul tells us to pray our way out of it, or through it, or even while still engulfed in anxiety. Prayer is to put into words what’s troubling us, and saying it to God. Paul’s advice is brilliant psychology – bring whatever is making us anxious before the God of grace and mercy and peace, name it, be thankful for the truth that God is all of this and more to us, and seek God’s strength to trust the peace that always, but always, stands guard over our heart.

Wednesday

2 Corinthians 11.28 “Apart from everything else, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

This is the same Paul who wrote have no anxiety about anything! For him, and for each of us, the life of faith is never straightforward. Nor can our response to hurts, difficulties, and challenges always be unbroken trust or consistent confidence in God. Faith is a struggle, for Paul and for us. Life is a source of all kinds of anxieties and sometimes they come at us like the groceries going through an Aldi checkout – too fast for us to keep up! But God said, to Paul and us: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12.9)

Thursday

Matthew 6.25 “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?”

Food and clothes, two of the big things the human family still worries about. We have created the phrase ‘food security’. In a globalised world with an ever increasing population, and a dangerously compromised climate system, more than ever we are anxious about the future. We are back to that line in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Give us, not just me. Until we learn how to share better; until our tables are places of welcome; until bread is broken and shared in an economy geared more to justice and human welfare. Until then, we pray this prayer for all those in our world anxious about where their children’s next meal will come from.

Friday

Matthew 6.25 “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?”

Having prayed that others might have daily bread, those words of Jesus still rebuke our obsession with stuff. Life is indeed more than bread and clothes. There is a place in the competitive economies of our age for quiet and determined Christian witness, a protest against the machinery of more and bigger. The doctrine of the providence of the Creator is a foundation principle of Christian trust and dependence. God feeds the birds; humans matter even more; how much more will God feed and clothe his children, and call them to live in shalom, under the security of One we call Father?

Saturday

1 Peter 5.7 “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because he cares for you.”

Is Peter remembering Jesus’ words? “Come to me all who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I think so. Worry is an inner burden, an ache of the heart, a weight on the mind. Throw it on to shoulders that were strong enough to bear the weight of the world’s sin, and its fears, and wounds and broken hopes. God is neither unaware, nor unconcerned about what’s happening to us. God’s care is personal, specific, faithful, the present practical expression of love that is eternal.

Sunday Prayers

Father, give to us, and to all your people, in times of anxiety, serenity; in times of hardship, courage; in times of uncertainty, patience; and at all times, a quiet trust in your wisdom and love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage; hold fast that which is good’ render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the faint-hearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honour all people; love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Antiphon (I)

Let all the world in every corner sing,
"My God and King!"
The heav'ns are not too high,
His praise may thither fly;
the earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
"My God and King!"

Let all the world in every corner sing,
"My God and King!"
The church with psalms must shout:
no door can keep them out.
But, more than all, the heart
must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
"My God and King!"