A Child's Prayer
Lord in heaven,
please listen to all those
who are praying to you now.
Those who are sad and crying,
those who have lost friends and family.
Those who are alone
and frightened.
Help them to remember,
that you are there
and you are listening.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Two Prayers for Peace
Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the king of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
O God, who would fold both heaven and earth in a single peace:
Let the design of thy great love
lighten upon the waste of our wraths and sorrows:
and give peace to thy Church,
peace among nations,
peace in our dwellings,
and peace in our hearts:
through thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Verses from the Psalms
Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and he shall comfort your heart;
Wait patiently for the Lord.
(Psalm 27.17)
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
(Psalm 46.1)
Be still, and know that I am God.
(Psalm 46.10) |
A Baby's Feet
Algernon Charles Swinburne
A baby's feet, like sea shells pink,
Might tempt, should heaven see meet
An angel's lips to kiss, we think,
A baby's feet.
Like rose-hued sea flowers toward the heat
They stretch and spread and wink
Their ten soft buds that part and meet.
No flower bells that expand and shrink
Gleam half so heavenly sweet,
As shine on life's untrodden brink
A baby's feet.
Poems for Baby
from Sing-Song by Christina Rossetti
Love me, - I love you,
Love me, my baby;
Sing it high, sing it low,
Sing it as may be.
Mother's arms under you,
Her eyes above you;
Sing it high, sing it low,
Love me - I love you.
Sweet and Low
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother's breast,
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe in the best,
Silver sails all out of the west,
Under the silver moon:
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.
Ode on the Whole Duty of Parents
Frances Cornford
The spirits of children are remote and wise,
They must go free
Like fishes in the sea
Or starlings in the skies,
Whilst you remain
The shore where casually they come again.
But when there falls the stalking shade of fear,
You must be suddenly near,
You, the unstable, must become a tree
In whose unending heights of flowering green
Hangs every fruit that grows, with silver bells;
Where heart-distracting magic birds are seen
And all the things a fairy-story tells;
Though still you should possess
Roots that go deep in ordinary earth,
And strong consoling bark
To love and to caress.
Last, when at dark
Safe on the pillow lies an up-gazing head
And drinking holy eyes
Are fixed on you,
When, from behind them, questions come to birth
Insistently,
On all the things that you have ever said
Of suns and snakes and parallelograms and flies,
And whether these are true,
Then for a while you'll need to be no more
That sheltering shore
Or legendary tree in safety spread,
No, then you must put on
The robes of Solomon,
Or simply be
Sir Isaac Newton sitting on the bed.
The following letter was written in 1834, the language is quaint and
old, yet is an great basis for a christening speech or letter for today.
Letter to a Godchild (To Adam)
by S T Coleridge, July 1834
My Dear Godchild
I offer up the same fervent prayer for you now, as I did kneeling
before the altar, when you were baptized into Christ, and solemnly
received as a living member of His spiritual body, the Church.
Years must pass before you will be able to read with an understanding
heart what I now write; but I trust that the all-gracious God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, who, by his only
begotten Son, (all mercies in one sovereign mercy!) has redeemed
you from the evil ground, and willed you to be born out of darkness,
but into light � out of death, but into life � out of sin, but into
righteousness, even into the Lord our Righteousness; I trust that He
will graciously hear the prayers of your dear parents, and be with you
as the spirit of health and growth in body and mind.
My dear Godchild! You received from Christ's minister at the
baptismal font, as your Christian name, the name of a most dear
friend of your father's, and who was to me even as a son, the late
Adam Steinmetz, whose fervent aspiration and ever-paramount aim,
even from early youth, was to be a Christian in thought, word, and
deed in will, mind, and affections.
I too, your Godfather, have known what the enjoyments and
advantages of this life are, and what the more refined pleasures which
learning and intellectual power can bestow; and with all the experience
which more than threescore years can give, I now, on the eve of my
departure, declare to you (and earnestly pray that you may hereafter
live and act on the conviction) that health is a great blessing,
competence obtained by honorable industry a great blessing, and
a great blessing it is to have kind, faithful, and loving friends and
relatives; but that the greatest of all blessings, as it is the most
ennobling of all privileges, is to be indeed a Christian. But I have been
likewise, through a large portion of my later life, a sufferer, sorely
afflicted with bodily pains, languors, and bodily infirmities; and, for the
last three or four years, have, with few and brief intervals, been
confined to a sick-room, and at this moment, in great weakness and
heaviness, write from a sick-bed, hopeless of a recovery, yet without
prospect of a speedy recovery; and I, thus on the very brink of the
grave, solemnly bear witness to you that the Almighty Redeemer, most
gracious in His promises to them that truly seek Him, is faithful to
perform what He hath promised, and has preserved, under all my
pains and infirmities, the inward peace that passeth all understanding,
with the supporting assurance of a reconciled God, who will not
withdraw His Spirit from me in the conflict, and in His own time will
deliver me from the Evil One!
O, my dear Godchild! eminently blessed are those who begin early to
seek, fear, and love their God, trusting wholly in the righteousness
and mediation of their Lord, Redeemer, Saviour, and everlasting High
Priest, Jesus Christ!
O, preserve this as a legacy and bequest from your unseen
Godfather and friend.
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