The Beatitudes of the Exceptional Child Blessed are you who take time to listen to difficult speech for you help us to know that if we persevere we can be understood. Blessed are you who walk with us in public places, and ignore the stares of strangers, for in your companionship we find havens of…

“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.”

1   O LORD, you have searched me and known me.  2   You know when I sit down and when I rise up;            you discern my thoughts from far away.  3   You search out my path and my lying down,            and are acquainted with all my ways.  4   Even before a word is on my tongue,            O LORD, you know…

16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to…

1This “King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him”; 2and to him Abraham apportioned “one-tenth of everything.” His name, in the first place, means “king of righteousness”; next he is also king of Salem, that is, “king of peace.” 3Without father, without…

27Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. 28Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s…

Dear Lord, please open our hearts and our minds. Lead us away from the false mindsets of control and ambition that led humanity to build the Tower of Babel. Lead us first to be still and listen to you. Align our will, Lord, with yours so that your service to the world will reflect only…

12  Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!            Praise your God, O Zion!  13  For he strengthens the bars of your gates;            he blesses your children within you.  14  He grants peace within your borders;            he fills you with the finest of wheat.  15  He sends out his command to the earth;            his word runs swiftly.  16  He gives snow like wool; …

1Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2 — although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized — 3he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of…

13When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply you.”15And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. 16Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end…