First Light

Lord, open my lips. And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

In the stillness, one true Word Is enough to hold the soul. We do not come to master you; We come to be made whole. Open the book, open the heart. Where we have hurried, slow us down. Where we have feared, be near and kind Until your light is found.

Original – Prayer on Fire

Isaiah 55:6–11

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

Seek the Lord, while he is able to be found. Call upon him, while he is near. Let the impious one abandon his way, and the iniquitous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will take pity on him, and to our God, for he is great in forgiveness. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways, says the Lord. For just as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so also are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts. And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry, so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

From Against Heresies by St. Irenaeus

public domain

There is therefore, as I have pointed out, one God the Father, and one Christ Jesus, who came by means of the whole dispensation, and gathered together all things in Himself. But in every respect, too, He is man, the formation of God; and thus He took up man into Himself, the invisible becoming visible, the incomprehensible being made comprehensible, the impassible becoming capable of suffering, and the Word being made man, thus summing up all things in Himself. So that as in supercelestial, spiritual, and invisible things, the Word of God is supreme, so also in things visible and corporeal He might possess the supremacy, and, taking to Himself the pre-eminence, as well as constituting Himself Head of the Church, He might draw all things to Himself at the proper time. He came to save all through means of Himself — all, I say, who through Him are born again to God — infants, and children, and boys, and youths, and old men. He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying infants; a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age; a youth for youths; and an old man for old men, that He might be a perfect Master for all.

God our Father, you have given us the light of another beginning. Open our lips to praise and our hands to mercy. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.