Welcome to Our Gathering of EChurch@Wartburg

Farm With Field

A prayer of Anselm (1033-1109) The Complete Book of Christian Prayer

O merciful God
Fill our hearts, we pray, with the graces of Your Holy Spirit;
With love, joy, peace patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness,humility and self-control.

Teach us to love those who hate us; to pray for those who despitefully use us;
That we may be the children of Your love, our Father,
Who makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
In adversity, grant us grace to be patient; in prosperity keep us humble;

May we guard the door of our lips;
may we lightly esteem the pleasures of this world,
And thirst after heavenly things;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen "

A Prayer by John Wesley link

I am no longer my own but yours, 
Put me to what you will 
Put me to doing, put me to suffering. 
Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you. 
Let me be full, let me be empty. 
Let me have all things, let me have nothing. 
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal 
And now glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 
You are mine and I am yours. So be it. 
And this covenant now made on earth, let it be satisfied in heaven.
Amen

Scripture Reading:  Luke 8:4-15 (NASB Bible Gateway)

Parable of the Sower

When a large crowd was coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to Him, He spoke by way of a parable:  “The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up.  Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.” As He said these things, He would call out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

His disciples began questioning Him as to what this parable meant. And He said, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

“Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

Prayer attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi link

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
where there is injury, pardon
where there is doubt, faith
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
and where there is sadness, joy

O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
to be loved as to love
for it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen

5th Century Prayer link

​Be present, O Lord, to our pleas; that as we trust that the Savior of all people is seated with You in Your Majesty,
so we may feel that, according to His promise,
He abides with us to the end of the world; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen