You are from God, little children, and you have overcome them, (false prophets).

Because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. 

They are  from the world, because they speak out of the world, and the world h ears them. 

We are from God, the one who knows God hears us,
whoever is not from God does not hear us. 

From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen

St Anselm

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, 
But test the spirits – if they are from God, 
Because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the spirit of God:
every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ in the flesh has come from God. 

And every spirit which does not confess that Jesus is from God is not.

And this is the one from the Antichrist, which you have heard  that is coming,
and is already in the world.

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)

And by this we will know that we are from the truth, 

              and we will convince our heart before him, 

– that if our heart condemns (us) –

that God is greater than our heart and he knows all things. 

Beloved if our heart does not condemn (us) we have confidence with God and whatever we ask we receive from him, if we keep his commands and we do the things that are pleasing to him. 

And this is his commandment  that we might believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and we might love one another, just as he gave the commandment to us. 

And the one who keeps his commandment remains in him, and he in them. 

And by this we know that he remains in us, from the Holy Spirit which he gave to us.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.
So we ought to lay down our lives for our sisters and brothers. 

But whoever has the means of the world and sees their brother or sister having a need, and closes their heart to them – how does the love of God dwell in them?

Little children, let us not love by word, or by the tongue, but by action and by truth.

O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

(unknown)

Because this is the message which you heard from the beginning,
– that we should love one another. 
not as Cain who was from the evil one, 
 and murdered his brother

And why did he murder him?
Because his deeds were evil
but those of his brother were righteous. 

Do not marvel, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

We know that we have passed over from death to life,
because we love the brothers and sisters. 

The one who does not love abides in death. 
everyone who hates their brother or sister is a murderer.

And we know that every murderer
does not have eternal life dwelling in  them.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Little children, let no-one deceive you. 

The one who practises righteousness is righteous. 

Just as he is righteous.

The one who practices sin is from the Devil,
because from the beginning the Devil has been sinning. 

For this [purpose] the Son of God was revealed
            – so that the works of the devil might be undone.

Everyone who is born from God does not practise sin, 

            because the seed of God lives in them.

   and they cannot sin

              because they are born from God

By this the children of God are apparent –  and the children of the Devil

everyone who does not practise righteousness is not from God, 

also the one who does not love his brother or sister.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Everyone who practices sin also practises lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

And you know that he was revealed
in order to take away sins,
and in him there is no sin.

Everyone who remains in him does not sin. 

Everyone who sins has not seen him,  nor known him.

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

See what wonderful love the Father has given to us – that we might be called children of God, and we are. Because of this, the world does not know us, because it did not know him. 

Beloved, we are children of God now, and it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him, will purify themselves as he is pure.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

And now, little children,

remain in him

so that when he does appear
we will have confidence
and we will not shrink in shame
from him at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous,
you also know that everyone who does what is right
has been born from him.

O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.

Gertrude the Great

I wrote these things about those [engaged] in deceiving you, 

and as for you:
      the anointing that you received from him         
remains in you all 
 and you do not have a need
for anyone to teach you all. 

But as his anointing teaches you about all things,
-and is true
and is not false-
just as he taught you- 
remain in him.

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Ignatius