Friday 8 December

Reveal among us the light of your presence, that we may behold your power and glory.

Readings (Click the links to see the readings)

Isaiah 29:17-24 | Psalm 27:11-14 | Matthew 9:27-31

The angel and the girl are met
Edwin Muir (1887-1959)

The angel and the girl are met,
Earth was the only meeting place,
For the embodied never yet
Travelled beyond the shore of space.
The eternal spirits in freedom go.

See, they have come together, see,
While the destroying minutes flow,
Each reflects the other's face
Till heaven in hers and earth in his
Shine steady there. He's come to her
From far beyond the farthest star,
Feathered through time. Immediacy
of strangest strangeness is the bliss
That from their limbs all movement takes.
Yet the increasing rapture brings
So great a wonder that it makes
Each feather tremble on his wings.

Outside the window footsteps fall
Into the ordinary day
And with the sun along the wall
Pursue their unreturning way
That was ordained in eternity.
Sound's perpetual roundabout
Rolls its numbered octaves out
And hoarsely grinds its battered tune.

But through the endless afternoon
These neither speak nor movement make,
But stare into their deepening trance
As if their gaze would never break

Prayer

God of Alpha and Omega,
your promises come to us bringing hope.
Grant us the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding to listen to your word,
the Spirit of counsel and of power to do your will,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord to be your messengers of peace.

Healing the blind man

Healing the blind man,
Edy-Legrand (Édouard Léon Louis Warschawsky) 1892-1970

"Then he touched their eyes and said,
'According to your faith let it be done to you.'" Matthew 9:27

 

Melchior Vulpius, "Jesus sprach zu dem Blinden [Jesus said to the Blind Man]" (c.1560). Sung by Mansfield University Concert Choir, cond. Peggy Dettwiler, 2015.

Jesus sprach zu dem Blinden:
Was willst du, daß ich dir tun soll?
Er sprach: Herr, daß ich sehen möge.
Und Jesus sprach zu ihm:
Sei sehend! dein Glaube hat dir geholfen.
Und alsobald ward er sehend und folgte ihm nach und pries Gott.
Und alles Volk, das solches sah, lobte Gott.

Jesus saud to the blind man:
What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?
And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.
And Jesus said unto him:
Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.
And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God:
and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.


May the Lord, when he comes, find us watching and waiting. Amen.