Elmer Fount of Heaven

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68359-629-5
Verlag: Lexham Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 352 Seiten

Reihe: Prayers of the Church

You are the fountain of life, light, and all grace and truth The hearts of the first Christians beat with praise for Christ. The strength of their devotion is remarkable, considering the times of uncertainty and persecution in which they lived. Despite all of this, the early church flourished, sustained by the God to whom they prayed. Christians today have a lot to learn from the devotional life of the early church. In Fount of Heaven, a collection of carefully selected prayers from the first six centuries of the church, we can pray with our spiritual forefathers. Prayers from luminaries such as Clement of Rome, Irenaeus, and Augustine are arranged by theme to reveal the right prayer for the moment. The prayers have been slightly updated to read more easily, but they retain their joy and mystery. As we turn to the prayers of the first Christians, we can return to the foundations of our own faith.

Robert Elmer is editor of Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans and author of over fifty books of Christian fiction, devotion, and apologetics. He and his family live in Lynden, Washington.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Elmer, Robert

Leseproben

PRAISE YOU FOR YOUR ATTRIBUTES

TO THE LORD, THE TRUE LIFE

I pray to you, O Lord, the highest truth. You are the one through whom is true all that is true.

I pray to you, O Lord, the true life. You are the one through whom all things live that do live.

You are the highest blessing, and through you are blessed all that are blessed.

You are the highest good and beauty, and the light through which we can know and understand.

I pray to you, Lord who has the whole world in your hands, although we cannot see, smell, hear, taste, or touch you. But we take all the good laws and virtues that we have from your realm. From your realm we have examples for all the good we can do.

Everyone who flees from you falls, everyone who turns to you rises, and everyone who abides in you stands. No wise person forsakes you, only the wise seek you, and no one completely finds you except the pure in heart.

Those who forsake you perish. Those who love you, seek you. And those who follow you, have you.

The truths you gave us awaken us from the sleep of our sins, and the love you have given us binds us to you. Our hope lifts us to you. Through you we overcome our enemies, both spiritual and in this world.

You who forgive, draw near and have mercy on me, because you have given us a great gift: We will never perish and come to nothing.

Amen.

—Augustine of Hippo

YOUR WORD IS LIKE A MIRROR

Those who are not Jews now praise you because your word has become like a mirror—and in that mirror we could see death, secretly swallowing up our lives.

For those of us who used to chase gods who were no gods, you who were God came after us. And by your words, like a bridle in a horse’s mouth, you turned us from the many gods to the one true God, the Mighty One.

You drew us to the cross.

To you be glory who has taken away that false religion that caused us to stumble. Medicine of life, to you be praise—you who have converted all who are baptized.

Praise be to you who are the life of all, and the Lord of all! The lost who are found bless you, and you have given joy to the angels.

Amen.

—Ephraim the Syrian

GREAT PROTECTOR, YOU ARE BLESSED FOREVER

Great protector of Abraham’s descendants, you are blessed forever.

Starting from the truth which our forefather knew when he changed his way, you guided him by a vision, and you taught him about this world. What you taught him went before his faith, his faith grew from what you taught him, and the covenant grew out of his faith.

For you said: “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted” (Genesis 13:16 NIV).

You gave him Isaac, and you were called his God, saying, “I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham” (Genesis 26:3).

When our father Jacob was sent into Mesopotamia, you said to him, “I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you” (Genesis 48:4).

And so you spoke also to Moses, your faithful and holy servant, at the vision of the bush, when you said, “I AM WHO I AM. This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation” (Exodus 3:14–15).

Great protector of Abraham’s descendants, you are blessed forever, amen.

—Apostolic Constitutions

WHO DO I LOVE WHEN I LOVE YOU, LORD?

I love you, Lord, with knowing and assurance—not with doubt. You struck my heart with your word, and I loved you.

Heaven and earth, and all that is within them, they urge me to love you. They never stop saying the same to everyone, so no one has an excuse.

But you will have deeper mercy on whom you will have mercy, and you will have compassion for whom you have compassion. Otherwise, heaven and earth speak praises to deaf ears.

But what do I love when I love you? Not a beautiful physical body, or the fair harmony of time. Not the brightness of light, so good to our eyes. Not the sweet melodies of song, and not the fragrant smell of flowers and spices, and not manna or honey. Not the embrace of a warm hug.

I love none of these when I love you, Lord. Yet I love a kind of light, and a kind of melody. I love a kind of fragrance, and meat, and embrace, when I love you.

It is the light, melody, fragrance, meat, and embrace of my inner self, where shines into my soul what space cannot contain. It sounds in a way that time cannot erase. The fragrance and the taste never fade, and the embrace clings forever.

That is what I love when I love you, God.

Amen.

—Augustine of Hippo

PRAISE FOR THE INDESCRIBABLE

O greatest, Supreme Creator of things invisible! You who are yourself unseen, and who cannot be comprehended! You are worthy, you are so worthy—if only we mortals may speak of you.

All who breathe and think should never cease to feel thankful and to give you thanks. Through our entire lives we should fall on our knees before you and offer neverending prayers.

For you are the first cause, and in you all created things exist. You are the foundation for all things.

You are limitless, unbegotten, immortal, enduring forever. You are God yourself alone, uncontainable, of virtues indescribable, of greatness indefinable.

You cannot be held to a single place; your movement cannot be restricted. Our words cannot define you.

To understand you, we must be silent. Our attempts would only track you through a shady cloud.

Grant a pardon, King Supreme, to those who would persecute your servants.

We are not surprised if you are beyond knowing. We are more astonished if you were clearly comprehended.

Amen.

—Arnobius

YOU GIVE LIFE TO THE LIFELESS

Almighty One, I know you through the worship of my heart alone. To the wicked you are unknown, yet you are known to every soul who is devoted to you.

You are without beginning and without end, more ancient than time past and time to come. No mind can grasp, nor tongue express, your being and extent.

The only one who may behold you and, face to face, hear your commands and sit at your fatherly right hand is himself the maker of all things. He himself is the cause of all created things. He himself is the Word of God, the Word which is God, who was before the world which he was to make, begotten at that time when time was not yet, who came into being before the sun’s beams and the bright morning star lit up the sky.

Nothing was made without him, and through him all things were made. His throne is in heaven, and beneath his seat lie earth and the sea and the invincible chaos of dark night. Unresting, he is the mover of all things, the one who gives life to the lifeless.

He is God, the begotten of the unbegotten.

Stirred to action by the betrayal of those people who scorned him, he called the nations into his kingdom to worship him, as worthier offshoots of an ingrafted stock.

To our forefathers it was granted to behold him, and whoever recognized him as God saw the Father also.

He bore our sinful stains and suffered death with mockery. He taught us that there is a road leading back to eternal life, and that the soul returns not alone, but with the body complete enters the realms of heaven and leaves the secret chamber of the grave empty, covered with earth which cannot hold it.

Amen.

—Ausonius

IN YOU WE ARE COMPLETE

I call on you, God. You are the truth—and all things are true in you, from you, and through you.

You are the wisdom—and all things are wise in you, from you, and through you.

You are the true and crowning life—and all things live in you, from you, and through you.

You are the blessedness—and all things are blessed in you, from you, and through you.

You are the good—and all things are good in you, from you, and through you.

To be turned away from you, God, is to fall—but to be turned back is to rise again. And to abide in you is to stand firm. To go forth from you, Lord, is to die—but returning to you is revival. To have a dwelling in you is life.

No one loses you, unless deceived. No one seeks you, unless stirred up. No one finds you, unless made pure. To forsake you is to perish.

Faith rouses us toward you, God. Hope lifts us up, and love joins us together. Through you, we overcome the enemy, and you are the one we come to with our requests. It is your gift that we do not utterly perish.

Through you, Lord, we flee evil and follow the good. Through you, we do not give up in the face of disaster. And through you, the baits and enticements of evil have no power to hold us.

In you, Lord, we are complete—even with fewer possessions. You strip us of that which is not, and array us in those things that truly are. Death is swallowed up in victory, and you turn us to yourself. You make us worthy to be heard, you...