An ode to joy for less than joyful times

Pour Your Spirit on Your people.
Fill Your Church, O God, we pray.
Help us navigate the culture
lest (confused) we lose our way.
Guide us with a holy passion
to pursue Your righteousness.
Keep us focused on Your precepts
grounded in Your holiness.

Help Your people love like Jesus.
Motivate us to be kind
as we stand for timeless virtues
lost amid the daily grind.
Teach us Christlike perseverance
as we earn the right to speak
to the ones You long to pardon.
Make us merciful and meek.

Breathe, O breathe, Your breath upon us.
Animate our focused will.
Fuel our mission to be mindful
of Your Word that guides us still.
Keep us anchored in Your Scriptures.
Hold our feet to purging fire
so to help us stand unflinching
known by love and Your desire.

• the above poem can be sung to the tune “Ode to Joy”