RELIGION AND ART

 I PLEAD WITH HIM   Psalm 142   MAY THE LORD ANSWER WHEN YOU CALL I call to the LORD for help, I plead with him’ I bring him all my complaints, I tell him all my troubles. When I am ready to give up, he knows what I should do. In the path where I walk, my enemies have hidden a trap for me. When I look beside me, I see that there is no one to help me, no one cares for me. LORD, I cry to you for help, you, LORD, are my protector, you are all I want in this life. Listen to my cry for help, for I am sunk in despair. Save me from my enemies, they are too strong for me. Set me free from my distress;   then in the assembly of your people I will praise you because of your goodness to me.

 THE LORD IS OUR HELP Psalm 123 (124) Our help is in the name of the Lord. ‘If the Lord had not been on our side,’   this is Israel’s song. ‘If the Lord had not been on our side   when men rose up against us,   then would they have swallowed us alive   when their anger was kindled. Our help is in the name of the Lord. ‘Then would the waters have engulfed us,   the torrent gone over us; over our head would have swept   the raging waters.’ Blessed be the Lord who did not give us   a prey to their teeth! Psalm 142   Our help is in the name of the Lord. Our life, like a bird, has escaped   from the snare of the fowler. Indeed the snare has been broken   and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord,   who made heaven and earth.

HERE I AM LORD  Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.   I waited, I waited for the Lord and he stooped down to me; he heard my cry.   You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,  but an open ear.  You do not ask for holocaust and victim.   Instead, here am I.  Psalm 39 (40)   Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.    In the scroll of the book it stands written   that I should do your will.  My God, I delight in your law   in the depth of my heart.   Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.   Your justice I have proclaimed in the great assembly. My lips I have not sealed;   you know it, O Lord.   Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

 SELF-RESPECT My child keep your self-respect, but remain modest.  Value yourself at your true worth. There is no excuse for a person who runs himself/herself down.  No one has respects a person who runs himself/herself down.   Sirach 10:28-29