O upside down God, thanks for the hope inspired by your choice of Mary to bring your Son Jesus into the world, for just as you chose a young, unlettered woman of no fame and exalted her, so too will you overturn the proud, rich and mighty and exalt the faithful, poor, hungry and humble. To do so O God is to reveal yourself wherever the poor, wounded, broken and neglected are being healed, cherished and liberated. May Mary’s witness to your compassion inspire in me today O God, that desire and willingness to say yes to your invitation to discipleship.

O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah. Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high. The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.

My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices because You O God have blessed your struggling servant with the gift of another day. Thank you Father for the great things you have done for me, for choosing me, for calling me by name even before I was born, for knitting me together in my mother’s womb, and for walking with me on this life’s journey. Strengthen my faith today Father, that I may not walk in the crowd of the conceited, nor sit with those who look down on the poor and afflicted. Give me today the courage to answer your call to be a bearer of good news, a source of light, and a witness to your unfailing love. Not my will O God, but yours.

God of mercy, God of grace show the brightness of your face to us as we enter this new day. Help us to see your face O God in each other, especially in those among us we find difficult to love, on whom we find it easier to pass judgement and exclude. Help us to see our faces in the faces of the oppressed and our hands in those of the oppressor, to accept that their pain is our pain, their flesh is our flesh, and their smile is our smile; that all of us were made from the same dust and loved equally by You. May we accept today O God, that no one is beyond redemption and no one is beyond your love.