The Body Broken
Chapter One
1
LOOKING AT THE MYSTERY
You are no longer aliens in a foreign land,
but fellow citizens with God's people,
members of God's own household.
You are being built with all the rest
into a spiritual dwelling for God.
-Saint Paul
O God, creator and preserver of all,
we pray especially for thy holy Church:
that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit,
that all who profess themselves Christians
may be led into the way of truth,
and hold the faith in unity of spirit,
in the bonds of peace, and in righteousness of life.
And this we beg for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
-The Book of Common Prayer
One of our neighbors is, by her own description, an old widow woman. Miss Dessie is in her seventies, and she lives next door and she works nights as a maintenance worker in the pediatric ward of one of the hospitals in the city. One of us-my wife, my son, my daughter, or myself-will see her most every day, and we try to be a good enough neighbor to her so she will continue to say what she has said about us a time ... read full excerpt from The Body Broken ebook