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      PRESENCE AND PEACE Romans 11.33,36

      How deep are the wealth and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!

      From him and through him and for him all things exist.

      READING Exodus 3.2,4-6,13-14

      There an angel of the Lord appeared to him as a fire blazing out from a bush. Although the bush was on fire, it was not being burnt up . . . When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to look, he called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ He answered, ‘Here I am!’ God said, ‘Do not come near! Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ Then he said ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God . . .

      Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and tell them that the God of their forefathers has sent me to them, and they ask me his name, what am I to say to them?’ God answered, ‘I AM that I am. Tell them that I AM has sent you to them.’

      REFLECTION

       This is another of those great turning points in the history of our human understanding of God. God is not small or locked into tribal boundaries; he is ‘I AM’, the One Who Is. The simplicity and the profundity of this insight are breathtaking. As you are at prayer so your very self (your own ‘I am’) is deeply related to the ‘I AM’ of God’s self. It’s as though your heart and the heart of God are pulsing together in harmony. God’s ‘I AM’ holds your ‘I am’ in being.

      CONFESSION

      Lord, have mercy upon us,

      Christ, have mercy upon us,

      Lord, have mercy upon us.

      PRAYER

       Thank God for the gift of prayer. Pray that God will help you to develop and enrich your relationship with him. Place into the hands of God all the things that have delighted you or troubled you this day and ask him to surround all those things with his healing love.

      Our Father . . .

      CONCLUSION

      The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.

      PRESENCE AND PEACE 1 Samuel 2.2

      There is none but you,

      none so holy as the Lord,

      none so righteous as our God.

      I come into your holy presence, O Lord;

      look upon me with mercy and love.

      PRAISE Luke 1.46-47

      My soul tells out the greatness of the Lord,

      my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.

      READING Luke 1.26-32,34-35,38

      In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, with a message for a girl betrothed to a man named Joseph; a descendant of David; the girl’s name was Mary. The angel went in and said to her, ‘Greetings, most favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was deeply troubled by what he said and wondered what this greeting could mean. Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for God has been gracious to you; you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High.’ . . . ‘How can this be?’ said Mary, ‘I am still a virgin.’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’ . . . ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ said Mary; ‘may it be as you have said.’ Then the angel left her.

      REFLECTION

       Picture the scene: Mary in her room, the early morning sunlight streaming through the window. In that light, shimmering with promise and beauty, she sees an angel, a messenger from God. It is an encounter that will change the world.

      PRAYER

       Give thanks for Mary’s ‘Yes’ to the light of Christ. Look at the daylight and imagine that it has come streaming from the throne of God. As it enters your eyes, so let the joy of God enter your soul. Thank God for the daylight. Pray for those who live in a kind of inner, angry darkness and who are in turmoil.

       Our Father . . .

      CONCLUSION

      Lord, as the light bathes the earth with its beauty, may your light shine upon all whom I shall meet this day.

      PRESENCE AND PEACE Daniel 2.20-21

      Blessed be God’s name from age to age,

      for to him belong wisdom and power.

      He changes seasons and times;

      he deposes kings and sets up kings;

      he gives wisdom to the wise

      and knowledge to those who have discernment.

      READING Hosea 6.1-3

      Come, let us return to the Lord.

      He has torn us, but he will heal us,

      he has wounded us, but he will bind up our wounds;

      after two days he will revive us,

      on the third day he will raise us

      to live in his presence.

      Let us strive to know the Lord,

      whose coming is as sure as the sunrise.

      He will come to us like the rain,

      like spring rains that water the earth.

      REFLECTION

       It was the experience of the Chosen People that, in spite of their faults and failings, God took the initiative to redeem them. His love would never let them go. New life always rebuilt the citadel of their lives.

       What is there in your own life that needs to be reshaped or renewed by God?

      CONFESSION

      Holy God,

      holy and strong,

      holy and immortal,

      have mercy upon us.

      PRAYER

       Thank God for the new things you have learned this day and for new opportunities that seem to beckon.

       Pray for those writers, actors and musicians whose work has brought you new insights.

       Our Father . . .

      CONCLUSION

      May the Lord bless us,

      may he keep us from all evil

      and

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