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Heavenly Father,

We enter your communion, the communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, through the body of Jesus and by His blood. Thank you for this grace in which stand. We live and and breathe and have our being in You!

We yearn for your voice, for your Word to call us forth from death and darkness into life and light. We yearn for your glory. We yearn for the Word that creates again a pure heart in us. Help us hear your voice and please give us a desire to know you and to do your will.

Have mercy on us Oh Lord. 

Fill us with your Spirit again.
Grant us your freedom that 
comes via the way of the Cross
and may we know Your joy.

May our praises for You come without calculations.
May our obedience for You emerge from love.
May our zeal for you You be full of knowledge.

For You are the One who has come to destroy the works of the evil one.
You are the One who seeks us through the night.
You are the One who calms the storm with a word.
You are the One who takes our offerings and feeds the nations.
You are the One who meets us in our griefs and takes in our tears.

You are the One who loves our brothers and sisters under deathly pressure in Nigeria and Burkina Faso. You are the One who has wisdom for scientists and social activists concerned for the state of our oceans. You are the One who brings down and binds up powers and principalities arrayed against the poor. You are the One who fortifies your people to love their enemies and their neighbours.

Where else could we go for the Words of life?

No one else could raise up children who share in your holiness from such a corrupt generation. No one else can love us the way you do. So, we pray this morning as Jesus teaches us to pray and — we ask that you would make it so —

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

What kind of common ground and space do you imagine for our civil society? 

Do you imagine and delight in the vision of a society sanitized of religious symbolism on the bodies of the “faithful”? 

Or

Do you imagine and delight in a vision of society filled with symbolism and self-expression, even on the bodies of the religious or “faithful?”

What do you believe we must protect? 

Do we need to protect society from the bodily self-expression of the religious?

or

Do we need to protect the religious and their right of self-expression from society when it demands control over their bodies?

Your answers to these questions will shape how you feel and think about the proposed (2.0 – as in “here it is again.”) legislation in Quebec.

No roar
in this dim light
but the battle
lines have been
drawn.

The curtain opens
on a throne
cast by you
in flesh.

Your glory fills.
Your word heals.
Your presence seals.
The usurper cannot
stand your
grace.

But humble hearts
beat again and
courage finds
a face.