knitternun

Monday, August 13, 2007

13/08/07 Monday in the week of the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE ONE OR
MORE MEDITATIONS. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT.
PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF
CHRISTIANITY. IT IS HOPED THAT ALL WILL PRAY THE COLLECT, REFLECT ON
THE DAY'S SCRIPTURES AND PRAY THE ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER. AFTER
THAT, YOUR CHOICE. THANK YOU]

If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box,
please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/


Blessed are those for whom Easter is...
not a hunt, but a find;
not a greeting, but a proclamation;
not outward fashions, but inward grace;
not a day, but an eternity.

Collect
Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those
things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by
you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.

O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be
numbered: Make us, like your servant Jeremy Taylor, deeply aware of
the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let your Holy Spirit
lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
++++++++++

Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

AM Psalm 89:1-18; PM Psalm 89:19-52
2 Samuel 13:23-39; Acts 20:17-38; Mark 9:42-50
++++++++++

From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Acts 20:17-38. But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if
only I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the
Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God's grace.

Paul's awareness of the Spirit's guidance echoes Jesus' own last
journey to Jerusalem. Those who would dissuade Paul from the appointed
course are like
Peter, tempting Jesus to save himself from pain, humiliation, and
death by disobeying the Spirit's leading. Jesus cuts Peter off by
rebuke. Paul cuts off these beloved brothers by affirming his
determination to continue his course and complete his ministry.


It can be hard to let go of a loved one for a good and hopeful
future--college, marriage, a new job. Harder still is to let them go
into dangerous, even death-dealing unknowns. But let go we must.


It can be difficult to leave our familiar comfort zone in order to
achieve goals. How much more difficult it may be to leave
accomplishments and entrust the remaining work to others. But leave it
we must.


God, bind us in your Holy Spirit and grant us the grace to discern our
appointed course, the strength to cut off the voice of the enemy, and
the courage to obey for the sake of the name you have conferred upon
us as your own. Amen.
++++++++++

Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

Jeremy Taylor
Psalm 139:1-9 or 16:5-11
Romans 14:7-9,10b-12; Matthew 24:42-47
++++++++++

Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Sabah
(South East Asia)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++

Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Right intentions

Daily Reading for August 13 • Jeremy Taylor, 1667

It is probable our hearts are right with God, and our intentions
innocent and pious, if we set upon actions of religion or civil life
with an affection proportionate to the quality of the work; that we
act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater than our necessity;
and that in actions of religion, we be zealous, active, and operative,
so far as prudence will permit; but in all cases, that we value a
religious design before a temporal, when otherwise they are in equal
order to the several ends: that is, that whatsoever is necessary in
order to our soul's health be higher esteemed, than what is for
bodily; and the indispensable necessities, of the spirit, be served
before the needs of nature; or plainer yet, when we choose any
temporal inconvenience, rather than commit a sin, and when we choose
to do a duty, rather than to get gain.

From Holy Living and Dying With Prayers: Containing the Complete Duty
of A Christian by Jeremy Taylor (Thomas Wardle, 1835).
++++++++++

Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Our most holy King has much more to give: He would rejoice to do
nothing but give could He find souls capable of receiving.
St Teresa of Jesus
++++++++++

Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

Abba John said, 'I am lke a man sitting under a great tree, who sees
wild beasts and snakes coming against him in great numbers. When he
cannot withstand them any longer, he runs to climb the tree and is
saved. It is just the same with me; I sit in my cell and I am aware of
evil thoughts coming against me, and when I have no more strength
against them, I take refuge in God by prayer and I am saved from the
enemy.'
++++++++++

Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Keeping the Peace in Our Hearts

Whatever we do in the Name of Jesus, we must always keep the peace of
Jesus in our hearts. When Jesus sends his disciples out to preach the
Gospel, he says: "Whatever town or village you go into, seek out
someone worthy and stay with him until you leave. As you enter his
house, salute it, and if the house deserves it, may your peace come
upon it; if it does not, may your peace come back to you" (Matthew
10:11-13).

The great temptation is to let people take our peace away. This
happens whenever we become angry, hostile, bitter, spiteful,
manipulative, or vengeful when others do not respond favourably to the
good news we bring to them.
++++++++++

The Merton Reflection for the Week of August 13, 2007

http://www.mertoninstitute.org

Paper Cranes
(The Hibakusha* come to Gethsemani)

"How can we tell a paper bird
Is stronger than a hawk
When it has no metal for talons?
It needs no power to kill
Because it is not hungry.

Wilder and wiser than eagles
It ranges around the world
Without enemies
And free of cravings.

The child's hand
Folding these wings
Wins no wars and ends them all.

Thoughts of a child's heart
Without care, without weapons!
So the child's eye
Gives life to what it loves
Kind as the innocent sun
And lovelier than all dragons!"

*Hibakusha are survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima

Thomas Merton. The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton. New York: New
Directions Press, 1977: 740.
++++++++++

From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

Day Thirteen - The Three Ways of Service

Tertiaries desire to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, whom
we serve in the three ways of Prayer, Study, and Work. In the life of
the Order as a whole these three ways must each find full and balanced
expression, but it is not to be expected that all members devote
themselves equally to each of them. Each individual's service varies
according to his/her abilities and circumstances, yet the member's
personal rule of life includes each of the three ways.
++++++++++

Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

Hiddenness of God
August 13th, 2007
Monday's Reflection

THE HIDDENNESS OF GOD is a blessing, not a problem in search of a solution.

Thank God for the hiddenness of God. What other arrangement could
there be? If God were not hidden, would God be visible? Is visible the
same as present? If God were visible on earth, how so? Constantly?
Once a year? And where? … Imagine the lines of people who'd queue up
to see God, standing in line for years. Imagine all the contradictory
requests God would hear.

- Ray Waddle
Against the Grain

From pages 90-91 of Against the Grain: Unconventional Wisdom from
Ecclesiastes by Ray Waddle. Copyright (c) 2003 by the author.
Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with
permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/
+++++++++++

Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"A Week of Prayers: Teach Us to Pray"

Loving God, give us the gift of prayer. We want you to find us, and we
want to find you. Teach us how to pray, Holy Spirit, and how not to be
afraid of prayer. Give us the courage to reveal ourselves, because,
Lord, you have not been afraid to reveal yourself. We need and want to
expose our deepest heart to you, just as you have exposed your heart
to us.

Free us from our fears. Put your arms around us and call us each by
name. Call us daughter and son. Call us to yourself. Tell us it's OK,
because we're so afraid, and we feel so bad about who we are. We long
to be found out, Lord. Discover us, Lord. We want to reveal ourselves
to you. And we want you to take us into your embrace. We pray together
as your sons and daughters and we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

from The Price of Peoplehood
++++++++++

From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.htm

Victory is sought by the darts of prayer

Shall I remind you of Judith, that high-minded lady, that noblest of
women? When the cause was almost lost she did not hesitate to go alone
to its defense and alone to risk herself and her life in order to slay
cruel Holofernes; she went to war not in armor or on steeds of battle
or weighed down with the weapons on which soldiers rely, but with
strength of soul and the confidence of faith, and she destroyed the
enemy by resolution and courage. A woman restored the freedom of her
country, which men had lost.

But I need not invoke the example of those far distant from us in the
past. With our own eyes we have often seen women and still youthful
maidens endure the torments of tyrants in witness to their faith. What
is needed in those who do battle for the truth and for God is courage
not of body but of spirit. For victory is to be sought by the darts of
prayer not by iron javelins, and it is faith that enables one to
endure the combat. Thus armed, take up the standard of Christ's cross
and follow him.

Origen of Alexandria
++++++++++

Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/





QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT


"Quench not the Spirit." 1 Thessalonians 5:19

The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that
unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear
it. The checks of the Spirit come in the most extraordinarily gentle
ways, and if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice you will
quench it, and your personal spiritual life will be impaired. His
checks always come as a still small voice, so small that no one but
the saint notices them.

Beware if in personal testimony you have to hark back and say - "Once,
so many years ago, I was saved." If you are walking in the light,
there is no harking back, the past is transfused into the present
wonder of communion with God. If you get out of the light you become a
sentimental Christian and live on memories, your testimony has a hard,
metallic note. Beware of trying to patch up a present refusal to walk
in the light by recalling past experiences when you did walk in the
light. Whenever the Spirit checks, call a halt and get the thing
right, or you will go on grieving Him without knowing it.

Suppose God has brought you up to a crisis and you nearly go through
but not quite, He will engineer the crisis again, but it will not be
so keen as it was before. There will be less discernment of God and
more humiliation at not having obeyed; and if you go on grieving the
Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated,
you have grieved Him away. But if you go through the crisis, there
will be the pæan of praise to God. Never sympathize with the thing
that is stabbing God all the time. God has to hurt the thing that must
go.
++++++++++

G. K. Chesterton Day by Day
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/gkcday/gkcday.html

QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT


"Quench not the Spirit." 1 Thessalonians 5:19

The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that
unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear
it. The checks of the Spirit come in the most extraordinarily gentle
ways, and if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice you will
quench it, and your personal spiritual life will be impaired. His
checks always come as a still small voice, so small that no one but
the saint notices them.

Beware if in personal testimony you have to hark back and say - "Once,
so many years ago, I was saved." If you are walking in the light,
there is no harking back, the past is transfused into the present
wonder of communion with God. If you get out of the light you become a
sentimental Christian and live on memories, your testimony has a hard,
metallic note. Beware of trying to patch up a present refusal to walk
in the light by recalling past experiences when you did walk in the
light. Whenever the Spirit checks, call a halt and get the thing
right, or you will go on grieving Him without knowing it.

Suppose God has brought you up to a crisis and you nearly go through
but not quite, He will engineer the crisis again, but it will not be
so keen as it was before. There will be less discernment of God and
more humiliation at not having obeyed; and if you go on grieving the
Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated,
you have grieved Him away. But if you go through the crisis, there
will be the pæan of praise to God. Never sympathize with the thing
that is stabbing God all the time. God has to hurt the thing that must
go.
++++++++++

Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 59: On the Sons of Nobles and of the Poor Who Are Offered

If anyone of the nobility
offers his son to God in the monastery
and the boy is very young,
let his parents draw up the document which we mentioned above;
and at the oblation
let them wrap the document itself and the boy's hand in the altar cloth.
That is how they offer him.

As regards their property,
they shall promise in the same petition under oath
that they will never of themselves, or through an intermediary,
or in any way whatever,
give him anything
or provide him with the opportunity of owning anything.
Or else,
if they are unwilling to do this,
and if they want to offer something as an alms to the monastery
for their advantage,
let them make a donation
of the property they wish to give to the monastery,
reserving the income to themselves if they wish.
And in this way let everything be barred,
so that the boy may have no expectations
whereby (which God forbid) he might be deceived and ruined,
as we have learned by experience.

Let those who are less well-to-do make a similar offering.
But those who have nothing at all
shall simply draw up the document
and offer their son before witnesses at the oblation.
++++++++++

Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the
Holy Orthodox Church.


Mon., Aug. 13, 2007 Dormition Fast Apodosis of Transfiguration;
Maximos, Confessor
Kellia: 1 Maccabees 4:41-61 Epistle: 2 Corinthians
5:10-15 Gospel: St. Mark 1:9-15

Maccabean Triumph IV ~ A Temple Cleansed: 1 Maccabees 4:41-61 LXX,
especially vs. 53: [They]"offered sacrifice according to the law upon
the new altar of burnt offerings, which they had made." The Maccabees
comprehended the need to cleanse the temple at Jerusalem before offering
prayers and sacrifices there to God. Likewise, before Orthodox Priests
serve the Divine Liturgy, ever depending on God's grace to be reconciled
with all and to guard their hearts from evil thoughts, they vest in
their outer, black exorasson, or garment for prayer, come before the
Holy Doors, and offer The Kairon or Entrance Prayers. Therein, they ask
the Spirit of Truth to come and abide within them, to cleanse them from
every stain of sin that they might venture to enter the bridal chamber
and worship the one Godhead in three Persons, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. Ah, Beloved, we too need to cleanse our hearts so as
not to be presumptuous when we come to worship God and to receive the
most Holy Mysteries of our Lord and Savior.

To be worthy as temples of God, all of us who are His servants ought
daily to strive for purity through what Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos
describes as "dispelling the clouds of evil from the air of the heart,
so that we may see the sun of righteousness, Christ...so that the
principles of His majesty may shine to some extent in the nous." Our
cleansing efforts should be carried out minding the word of St. Symeon
the New Theologian that "the heart cannot be purified without the
working of the Holy Spirit, just as the smith uses his tools, but fire
as well." Today's reading can be a real help in the process of
purifying the temples of our hearts, if we will review and use the steps
that the Maccabees took to cleanse the ancient Temple of God.

Judas Maccabeus sent "certain men to fight against those that were in
the fortress, until he had cleansed the sanctuary" (vs. 41). Although
the Seleucid army withdrew from Judah in defeat, they left a garrison of
the pagans in a fort or citadel within Jerusalem proper. These troops
had not the numbers to confront the entire Maccabean army directly, but
they were capable of forays against the temple and posed a threat to its
cleansing and worship. Hence, a detail was assigned either to rid the
city of this unit or, at least, to contain them.

Likewise, we must maintain constant watchfulness against the forays of
Satan and the weaknesses of our own flesh, for these can distract us
from Christ and defeat us with new impurities and sins in our hearts and
actions. Fasting, self-control, vigils, reading of Scripture and other
ascetic practices can, by God's grace, help keep us from committing sin.

Since the former altar had been profaned, "blameless" priests pulled it
down, "lest it should be a reproach to them, because the heathen had
defiled it" (vss. 42,45). We, likewise, must tear down the profane
elements within ourselves and make our hearts new altars composed of
pure stones of truth, stillness, and the virtues of faith, hope, and
love. This must be done in a manner that He Who gave the Law will
direct, guide, and assist us in accomplishing.

When the Maccabees completed the cleansing of the ancient Temple, "they
rose up betimes in the morning, and offered sacrifice according to the
law upon the new altar of burnt offerings, which they had made" (vs.
53). This was on "the five and twentieth day of the month Chislev"
(vss. 59), now celebrated as the Feast of Hanukkah by the Jews. In
Christ, however, we "are the temple of God" in which His Spirit dwells
inasmuch as we cleanse our hearts that we may be made into a worthy
altar for the Lord. Let us ask God to illumine the candlestick of our
heart, make our prayers as pure incense, so as to receive the Bread of
true life as the holy offering it is.

O good Lord, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of
Thy Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily magnify Thy
Holy Name.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home