Mr. Herb "Uncle Buddy" Bennerfield prays this magnificently rich scriptural and confessional prayer every day. I had him pray it for us at the close of Wednesday's Bible class. I had Mrs. H. video it for posterity and also so we could transcribe it.
Uncle Buddy is a treasure of our parish. He is an 87-year old WW2 vet who still lifts weights for exercise and attends every Sunday and Wednesday Divine Service and every Wednesday Bible class - unless he is out of town, has no ride to church, or is sick (all of which are rare).
Thank you Uncle Buddy!
Heavenly Father we thank You for the many blessings that You have bestowed upon me and my family, me and my household. You have given us both temporal, earthly blessings and spiritual blessings. We do appreciate these blessings, Lord, and we thank and praise You for them. We thank You too for providing for the necessities of this life: our daily bread. You have truly exceeded our fondest hope and our greatest expectations.
But Lord, we thank You most of all for our most precious and wonderful gift, Your Son, Jesus Christ, who purchased and won us from sin, death and hell. And He did it not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death on Calvary’s cross. He, Jesus Christ, became sin for us - He who knew no sin - that we might become the righteousness of God through Him.
Lord we pray that your Holy Spirit remain with us all the days of our lives, to guide, guard and protect us and keep us in the one true saving faith, until we finally we meet You in heaven. This we pray in our blessed savior’s name. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Uncle Buddy adds: "And then I say the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Benediction, and then I go to bed."
3 comments:
Of all of the blessings of being a parish pastor, surely this is one of the greatest--to witness the deep, deep heartfelt piety of mature saints! I was once blessed by a parishioner in her 90's--who, despite having broken both hips, stood when I entered her home (out of respect for the pastoral office) and again when she received Holy Communion (out of respect for the Body and Blood of our Lord). I was blessed beyond measure simply to know her!
This is most certainly true!
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