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Teach me o Lord, the ways of your mercy,
How to reach out in truth,
Not in the false sentimentality of popular notions,
that shifting sense of fairness
that changes with fashion and taste,
but in the true ways your word reveals,
caring for the ugly and the outcast,
the unpopular, the needy,
in the ways that you show us to do.

Teach me O Lord, the ways of your mercy,
How to reach out in truth,
Not with the false rationality that blooms ever anew
to find reasons not to help, to say no
in spite of the truth of what your word reveals,
help me not to turn my back on the ones you send me,
help me not to grow hard hearted with the call now to love,
but to walk in the ways that you call us to do.

Teach me, O Lord, the ways of your mercy,
To see your eyes shining in the face of the lost,
To hear your voice calling in the cry of the hungry,
To reach out and cover your shoulders as I clothe the naked,
To feel your touch in the hands of the unloved.
Through your help, O Lord, let me reach out to God's children
As if I were reaching out in love to you.

This day, and always, Amen.