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From the very outset of

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a prophet's message in 55 verses,

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anonymity begets attention to

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the message and not the messenger.

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Yahweh's messenger identified by the name

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Malachi,

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my messenger, identifies greater

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messengers to follow.

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The baptizer is God's Elijah,

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the son of God,

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templed in your humanity,

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is the promised savior of all.

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This message is to be heard and believed.

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It does not go out in vain.

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Its messengers speak with

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perfect unity to a hardened cynical

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audience,

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not too dissimilar from the one

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sitting in this nave this morning.

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Their word to you is this,

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repent of your reckless disobedience

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and unrighteousness, maintain

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steadfast trust in the promises

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of God in the Christ.

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He is persistent and patient in His

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mercy.

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His purpose doesn't change.

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He comes to you and He is coming again.

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Likely, you are saying to yourselves

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right now,

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judgment day, bring it on.

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Can't arrive too soon.

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Take away, O God,

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the fallenness of this world.

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Give the heathen what they deserve.

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Grant relief from my many daily burdens.

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Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

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Yet as you say all of that,

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you must cope with a lamentable reality.

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You do not really hold that

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the Lord's judgment properly starts with

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you first,

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with the house of God,

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with you priests, the sons of Levi,

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you who are to set the example for the

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people,

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you who are to prepare the way of the

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Lord

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to make his paths straight and level,

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you messengers of this Yahweh.

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Whether previously or not yet called

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and ordained into the office of the Holy

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Ministry

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or fulfilling any other vocation,

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your frequent and continual offenses

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provoke the Lord to indignation.

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While you wait for the Lord

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who only delays His arrival yet a little

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while longer,

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you conveniently ignore your continuance

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in personal sins.

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You dismiss your failures to maintain

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fidelity

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to the will of your immutable creator.

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You dance with doubts and skepticism.

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From the recesses of your heart is heard

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the griping.

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Where is He, this Lord of justice?

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He has let unrighteousness surrounding us

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to go too far.

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It is all a dangerous pretense,

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a wily hoax on your part.

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In these latter days,

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you follow along in willing cooperation

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with your pagan neighbors.

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You give the Lord not your first fruit,

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but sacrifices that are downright lame.

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You profane the name of the Lord

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with your self-serving deceptions.

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You maintain an inner hope that you will

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increase

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in the eyes of mere mortals

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while he would get all of the leftovers.

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You harbor dreams not of anonymous

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humility

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and preaching and teaching and the care

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of souls,

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but of earned glory within the church.

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You care less about the message.

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More about you as the messenger.

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When called to repent, you are tempted to

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ask, really?

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How have we left you, O Lord?

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Yahweh gives answer through the

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messenger.

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You've questioned my love.

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You've corrupted the ministry to my

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people.

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Though I gave you every treasure,

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consider your baptism.

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You have wearied me with your faithless

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wandering

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and your mindless chatter.

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Be ever so thankful that Yahweh doesn't

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leave it there.

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He is merciful, patient in long

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suffering.

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The Lord's ultimate answer is not your

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destruction

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as a sinner, but your purification as His

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beloved.

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It is foremost on His mind that you would

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be raised,

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that you would live forever having been

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given

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a spirit-worked heart of faith in your

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Redeemer,

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that you would be clothed with the robe

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of righteousness

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washed in the blood of Jesus shed upon

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the Holy Cross,

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that He alone would bring about your

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return

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from the brink of disaster and eternal

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death.

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His messengers have been many over the

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course of time,

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whether they be prophets or apostles,

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deaconesses or teachers, musicians or

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artists,

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pastors or priests.

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Yet they all speak as one.

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In Christ, every one of your sins has

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been forgiven.

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On this campus, we are prone to remember

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and give thanks

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for the thousands who have been prepared

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here

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to serve at the divine call of the

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forgiving Christ.

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While most of those saints who have gone

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before us

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now dwell in relative humility and

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anonymity,

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they are certainly and intimately known

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by their savior.

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Greater is the truth that the word of the

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Lord

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that they spoke by Malachi, by the

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baptizer,

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by the apostles and evangelists, by the

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Son of God himself,

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that word endures forever.

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Jesus is the same yesterday, today and

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forever.

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What He is, He always is.

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Who He is, He always is.

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Such as He is, He always is.

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Hence the name Yahweh by which he has

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made Himself known.

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I am who I am.

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And Christ is this, as Luther observed,

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not merely the refiner, but the refining

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agent.

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He is not only the blacksmith, but the

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fire,

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not only the washer, but the soap.

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Whoever therefore wishes to become a

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Christian

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must give himself over to being purified.

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Such purification now continues between

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pastor and people,

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between faithful under shepherds and the

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flock,

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as the true and faithful word unstoppably

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proceeds

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toward a consummation upon the appointed

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day.

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The present season now gives a jolt of

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disruption

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to the self-absorbed, to you and me,

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who ought to be paying more attention

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continually.

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As preachers and teachers and servants of

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the church

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giving unvarnished true testimony in

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accord

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with His messengers who came before,

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pointing directly to Jesus' climactic

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arrival.

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You see in the promises of God's word

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delivered by Malachi

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that not only were Yahweh's messengers

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coming

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and have now come, Yahweh came and is

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coming again.

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His advent draws ever nearer

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the only begotten Son of the Father,

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His messenger without equal ever before

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or since

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will come again in glory to judge both

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the living

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and the dead whose kingdom will have no

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end.

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We have been given to confess that

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unashamedly,

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expectantly, joyfully in the name of the

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Father

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and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

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Amen.