Chaplains Page

 

 

"It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord; To sing praises to you name, O God most high"

To tell of your lovingkindness early in the morning, And your truth in the darkest of nights.” (Psalm 92 verses 1 & 2)

 

We know the dark nights all too well.

 

The skies over our County darkened considerably on Monday November 21 with the sudden, untimely, and unexpected death of our kindly Judge and long time friend of law enforcement Chuck Patterson.

 

It is not easy to give thanks in such times; but, as God says through the Psalmist, it is good. What is good is almost never easy. “If it ain’t hard, it ain’t right”.

 

So do the the hard thing, the right thing, the good thing, and give thanks!

 

Please pray with me:

 

Almighty God our heavenly Father, from whom comes every good and perfect gift, we remember your loving kindness and your tender mercies which have been ever of old, and with grateful hearts we lift up our thanksgiving:

 

For all your gifts which you have bestowed upon us, for the life you have given us and world in which we live, let us bless the Lord:

 

For the work we are enabled to do and the truth we are permitted to learn; for whatever of good there has been in our past lives, and for all the hopes which lead us on toward better things, let us bless the Lord:

 

For the order and constancy of nature;

for the beauty and bounty of the world;

for day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest; for the varied gifts of loveliness and use that each season brings, let us bless the Lord:

 

For all the comforts and gladness of life; for our homes and families; for our friends and all pure pleasure; for the love, sympathy, and good will of persons near and far; let us bless the Lord:

 

For all the blessings of civilization, wise government and legislation; for education and all the privileges we enjoy through literature, science, and art; for the help and counsel of those who are wiser than ourselves, let us bless the Lord:

 

For all true knowledge of You and the world in which we live; for the life of truth and righteousness and divine communion which you have called us; for prophets and apostles, and all earnest seekers after truth; for all lovers and helpers of humankind, and all godly and gifted men and women, let us bless the Lord

 

For the gift of your Son Jesus Christ,

and for all the helps and hopes which are ours as his disciples; for the presence and inspiration of your Holy Spirit; for all the ministries of your grace and truth let us bless the Lord:

 

For the desire and power to help others; for every opportunity of serving our generation according to your will, and showing forth the grace of Christ to others:

let us bless the Lord:

 

For all the discipline of life;

for the tasks and trials by which we are trained to patience, self-knowledge and self conquest, and brought to closer sympathy with those who suffer; for problems which have lifted us nearer to you and drawn us into deeper fellowship with Jesus Christ; let us bless the Lord:

 

For the sacred and tender ties which bind us to the unseen world, for the faith which dispels the shadows of earth, and fills the saddest and the last moments of life with an immortal hope; let us bless the Lord:

 

Almighty and everlasting God,

who has graciously given us the fruits of the earth in their season, we yield humble and hearty thanks for these your bounties, asking you to give us grace rightly to use them to your glory and the relief of those that need, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit live and reign, One God, for ever and ever.

 

 

--Chaplain Tom