May 8, 2006
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Daily Graces
Two things that have graced me today: a prayer book and John Rutter’s music.
I picked up a tiny little book at the local book fair/sale, a Lutheran Book of Prayer. They have a month’s worth of morning and evening prayers for each day. Part of Monday morning’s prayer is on our white board for the entire week:
Guard us against becoming selfish, careless and slovenly in the pursuance of our daily work, so that we do our duty not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.Isn’t that a great prayer? I need that reminder, especially, I think, in May. While I was ironing (last post) I not only listened to opera. I put on a CD of John Rutter’s sacred music, given to me by my dear SIL Kathie. The great thing about ironing (I can’t believe I just wrote that) is that you can focus your mind while you work. I listened to this CD several times, memorizing the words to my favorite songs. John Rutter is one of the best living composers with whom I am familiar. This acapella song, in particular, grabbed me. This seems to me a perfect prayer to put in with the graduation cards this year.
Open thou mine eyes and I shall see:
Incline my heart and I shall desire:
Order my steps and I shall walk
In the ways of thy commandments.
O Lord God, be thou to me a God
And beside thee let there be none else,
No other, nought else save thee.
Vouchsafe to me to worship thee and serve thee
According to they commandments
In truth of spirit,
In reverence of body,
In blessing of lips,
In private and public.Lancelot Andrewes 1555-1626
Comments (11)
That is a good prayer and a great reminder.
Heather
Yes, a lovely prayer to include…..as I send out graduation cards. I’m also including a picture of the graduate when s/he was *little* Helps them realize how far they’ve come.
Blessings from GA, Dana
Dana, what a great idea. I love it! I’d better get to work finding younger pictures *now*!
I love prayer books *sigh*
Carol!!
You resurrected your blog! I did not know. And I feel really badly that I didn’t know. You see, I get all blog comments emailed to me, so I don’t see the links. I found yours by clicking through my sitemeter. I hope you understand now why I’ve not visited/commented before.
Magistramater is **wonderful**! I’ve just spent a good while reading through. I’m so excited to find your written thoughts about books and music. Oh we have so much in common! Why do we have to have the entire continent separating us?!
I’m just so excited I can visit your thoughts here!
Janie
Heather, Dana, Kristen and Janie, blog sisters all of you: I’ve never met you and yet you feel like dear friends friends from long ago. I’d love to join you for a cup of tea and talk face to face. Most of the commenters on my blog are locals, relatives, or near relatives (good friends of my sons). Now I am sighing in the most contented way to get thoughts from you. Thank you.
Carol, I love John Rutter too. I don’t always start out liking his arrangements when I’m learning to sing them because they are so … “Rutter-esque,” if you know what I mean.
Could you tell me the name of the CD here? Thanks!
Blessings for a nice weekend!
Janie
Janie, it’s called Gloria, The Sacred Music of John Rutter. Collegium Records put it out in 1984. I tried to find it in Amazon, but couldn’t. Perhaps, if it is out of print, I could burn it and send it to you? It’s really quite wonderful.
Happy Mother’s Day!
I had to peak into my prayer book and sure enough, there it was…I have a more recent edition, now it is in the first person, but it is the same prayer…
Carol, is this it? Are these the same songs and lineup as yours? It looks like this is a new edition. If so, I’ll order it. And ooh, it has The Prayer of St. Patrick!
Blessings for a lovely week!
Yes! Yes! Yes! How did you find it Janie? It’s a ***wonderful*** CD! As good as the Vaughn Williams I told you about. Oooh…goosebumps!