Battle Speech

In church at St. John's, there's a portion in the service when the priest says, “The Lord be with you.” The congregation responds: “And with thy spirit.” The priest continues: “Lift up your hearts.” The congregation again responds: “We lift them up unto the Lord.”

This always seemed like a sort of battle-cry to me; I'm not really sure why.

For a while now, I've wanted to extend it into some sort of battle speech, and I finally did a few days ago, so here it is:

P: “The Lord be with you”
C: “And with thy spirit.”
P: “Lift up your hearts.”
C: “We lift them up unto the Lord!”

P: And the Lord will lift you up!
In His might and in His splendor,
He will bolster your souls;
He will draw you out of the desert
And place you in promised lands.
He has washed your hearts white with His blood.
Now revel in the freedom Christ bestows upon you.

We will bleed. We will endure hardships. We will suffer loss.
We will have that which we thought would sustain us torn from us.
But, if we hold fast to Christ — no matter how feebly —
He will open His heart to us, for He is strong to save.
And He will sustain us; He is all that will sustain us.
And, when the days are ragged and the paths are bleak,
Christ will pierce through our darkness and grant us life anew.
He will grant us strength to finish the race
That we may obtain the prize.

Again, we will bleed, but only to join the vast passion by which we have been cleansed;
Only to imitate the Christ in whose death we have life;
Only to suffer that we may be brought closer
Into the likeness of Him who wields our Father’s image with perfect purity.
Therefore, lift up your bleeding hearts!