knitternun

Monday, August 27, 2007

27/08/07 Monday in the week of 13th 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]




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, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O loving God, whose will it is that everyone should come to you and be saved: We bless your Holy Name for your servants Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle, whose labors with and for those who are deaf we commemorate today; and we pray that you will continually move your Church to respond in love to the needs of all people; through Jesus Christ, who opened the ears of the deaf, and 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 146, 147; PM Psalm 111, 112, 113
2 Samuel 24:1-2,10-25; Gal. 3:23-4:7; John 8:12-20
++++++++++

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

Psalm 4. I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep; for only you, LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Now I can almost laugh about it, but several weeks ago it was anything but funny. My octogenarian, legally blind mother had fallen, spent the night on
the floor, and was transported to the hospital. When I arrived at the state-of-the-art emergency room, she had been put on a monitor, and the nurse was tapping the screen to program it for readings. After several failed attempts she called in a technology specialist, who was also unable to bring up the right information. A new program module was installed, to no avail. A third specialist was called in to replace the entire unit. As I watched these health care professionals focus their attention on the malfunctioning technology, I wanted to scream, "The patient is in the bed, not on the wall!"


Silently I prayed, "Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place." After affirming that God knew what my mother needed, I gave thanks and received peace. I was able to bring her home that afternoon.


Beware of trusting created things to provide peace and security, for these have limits and will fail. To know real peace and safety, seek the everlasting arms of a loving Father God.
++++++++++

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

Thomas Gallaudet & Henry Winter Syle:
Psalm 19:1-6 or 96:1-7
Isaiah 35:3-6a; Mark 7:32-37
++++++++++

Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Psalm 4. I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep; for only you, LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Now I can almost laugh about it, but several weeks ago it was anything but funny. My octogenarian, legally blind mother had fallen, spent the night on
the floor, and was transported to the hospital. When I arrived at the state-of-the-art emergency room, she had been put on a monitor, and the nurse was tapping the screen to program it for readings. After several failed attempts she called in a technology specialist, who was also unable to bring up the right information. A new program module was installed, to no avail. A third specialist was called in to replace the entire unit. As I watched these health care professionals focus their attention on the malfunctioning technology, I wanted to scream, "The patient is in the bed, not on the wall!"


Silently I prayed, "Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place." After affirming that God knew what my mother needed, I gave thanks and received peace. I was able to bring her home that afternoon.


Beware of trusting created things to provide peace and security, for these have limits and will fail. To know real peace and safety, seek the everlasting arms of a loving Father God.
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++

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

Thomas Gallaudet

Daily Reading for August 27 • Thomas Gallaudet, 1890, and Henry Winter Syle, 1902

The growth of the spiritual kingdom, as a divinely appointed organization, is a mystery; and the growth of spiritual life in the hearts of each individual member of the spiritual kingdom is a mystery. We behold indications, from time to time, marking the gradual progress of these two kinds of growth; we believe in them, as realities coming to pass, in consequence of Christ’s redemption, and yet we know not how. “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

Oh! let those to whom the gospel announcements have come, be not faithless, but believing. Beholding the wonderful work which God, through Christ, has wrought for mankind by the mysterious instrumentalities of his infinitely wise appointment, let all become genuine, devout communicants of the organization which has existed, though they know not how, for upward of eighteen hundred years, as the grand regeneration of the human race; and in due time, they shall be the possessors of the peace of God, which passing understanding, is the earnest of the good things to come in the future life, of which it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive. Oh! let us have entire faith in the Divine arrangements for the growth of spiritual life, although they are to us, in our present condition, unfathomable mysteries.

From the sermon preached at the first service held at St. Ann’s Church for Deaf-Mutes by Thomas Gallaudet, quoted in A Year With American Saints by G. Scott Cady and Christopher L. Webber. Copyright © 2006. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org
++++++++++

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

The soul of the just person is nothing else but a paradise where the Lord says He finds His delight.
St Teresa of Jesus
Interior Castle, I.1
++++++++++

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

The old man (abba John the Dwarf) said, 'You know that the first blow the devil gave to Job was through his possessions; and he saw that he had not grieved him nor separated him from God. Whith the second blow, he touched his flesh, but the brave athlete did not sin by any word that came out of his mouth in that either. In fact, he had within his heart that which is of God, and he drew on that source unceasingly.'
++++++++++

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

Being Ready to Die

Death often happens suddenly. A car accident, a plane crash, a fatal fight, a war, a flood, and so on. When we feel healthy and full of energy, we do not think much about our deaths. Still, death might come very unexpectedly.

How can we be prepared to die? By not having any unfinished relational business. The question is: Have I forgiven those who have hurt me and asked forgiveness from those I have hurt? When I feel at peace with all the people I live with, my death might cause great grief, but it will not cause guilt or anger.

When we are ready to die at any moment, we also are ready to live at any moment.
++++++++++

The Merton Reflection for the Week of August 27, 2007
http://www.mertoninstitute.org/retreats.php

"[Merton entered his hermitage on a full-time basis on August 20, 1965, the feast day of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the Cistercian Doctor of the Church. On August 21, 1965, Merton wrote this in his journal:]

"This morning-grey, cool, peace. The unquestionable realization of the rightness of this, because it is from God and it is His work. So much could be said! What is immediately perceptible is the immense relief, the burden of ambiguity is lifted, and I am without care-no anxiety about being pulled between my job and my vocation. I feel as if my whole being were an act of thankfulness-even the gut is relaxed and at peace after good meditation and long study of Irenaeus. The woods all around crackle with guerrilla warfare-the hunters are out for squirrel season (as if there were a squirrel left!). Even this idiot ritual does not make me impatient. In their mad way they love the woods too: but I wish their way were less destructive and less of a lie."

Thomas Merton: Dancing in the Water of Life. Journals, Volume 5. Robert E. Daggy, editor. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997: 283

Thought to Remember

"The blessing of Prime under the tall pines, in the cool of early morning, behind the hermitage. The blessing of sawing wood, cutting grass, cleaning house, washing dishes. The blessing of a quiet, alert, concentrated, fully "present" meditation. The blessing of God's presence and guidance."

Dancing in the Water of Life: 284
++++++++++

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

Day Twenty Seven - The Second Note, cont'd

The Third Order is Christian community whose members, although varied in race, education, and character, are bound into a living whole through the love we share in Christ. This unity of all who believe in him will become, as our Lord intended, a witness to the world of his divine mission. In our relationship with those outside the Order, we show the same Christ-like love, and gladly give of ouselves, remembering that love is measured by sacrifice.
++++++++++

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

The Company of Believers
August 27th, 2007
Monday’s Reflection

JESUS MAY BE God Incarnate, Lord of all creation, Emmanuel, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Coming Messiah, Light of life, and so on, but the Master himself deliberately engaged his public ministry here on earth by surrounding himself with a small covenant group … who knew and loved God. How much more should we place ourselves in the company of fellow believers?

- Derek Maul
Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men

From page 73 of Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men by Derek Maul. Copyright © 2007 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



"Respecting Our American Experience"

The cultural experience of each country has to be respected and listened to, for God has spoken through the minds and hearts of each people. Each, I believe, holds different parts of the Great Mystery in special awareness.

If we're going to listen to the experience of our brothers and sisters in the Third World, I think, in fairness, we have to grant the same privilege to ourselves. We have to respect and listen to the only experience that we Americans have had. We have to trust it, we have to say, somehow there's some truth in it.

We must recognize the good in our society before we can eliminate the bad because good and evil are two sides of one coin. You can't recognize evil without recognizing good. You can't accept the one without, to some degree, accepting or at least understanding the other.

What is the American experience? What is our experience of life, for good and for ill? It's the only experience you and I have. I would list the essentially good values of American culture as: personalism, freedom and self-determination, pluralism, up-front honesty, democratic self-criticism, a not-so-bad emphasis on productivity and practical effect, and a natural egalitarianism that disdains caste systems in any form. These are all potentially gospel and part of the cosmic mystery of the Body of Christ.

The American experience has formed our psyche. God is willing to use these values. We must be willing to work with them, too, recognizing both their gift and their temptation.

from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction
++++++++++

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

Remember, Monica, my mother

May Monica, my mother, rest in peace with her husband, before whom and after whom she was given in marriage to no man. She dutifully served him, bringing forth fruit to you with much patience, that she might also win him to you. Inspire, O Lord my God, inspire your servants my brethren, your children my master, whom I serve with my voice, my heart, and my writings, that as many of them as read these words may remember at your altar your handmaid, Monica, together with Patricius, formerly her husband, by whose flesh you brought me into this life, how I know not. May they with a pious affection remember them who were my parents in this transitory light, my brethren under you, our Father in our Catholic mother, and my fellow citizens in the eternal Jerusalem, for which your pilgrim people here below continually sigh from their setting out until their return, so that my mother's last request of me may be more abundantly granted by her through the prayers of many, occasioned by my confessions, rather than through my own prayers.

Augustine of Hippo
++++++++++

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

THEOLOGY ALIVE


"Walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you." John 12:35

Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" The second you waive the question of sanctification or any other thing upon which God gave you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse.

The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it is shown in the life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent; it came from the pit, no matter how beautiful it sounds.

Theology must work itself out in the most practical relationships. "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees . . ." said Our Lord, i.e., you must be more moral than the most moral being you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you running it out into the practical issues of your life? Every bit of your life, physical, moral and spiritual, is to be judged by the standard of the Atonement.
++++++++++

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

MANY of us live publicly with featureless public puppets, images of the small public abstractions. It is when we pass our own private gate, and open our own secret door, that we step into the land of the giants.

'Charles Dickens.'
++++++++++

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

Chapter 69: That the Monks Presume Not to Defend One Another

Care must be taken that no monk presume on any ground
to defend another monk in the monastery,
or as it were to take him under his protection,
even though they be united by some tie of blood-relationship.
Let not the monks dare to do this in any way whatsoever,
because it may give rise to most serious scandals.
But if anyone breaks this rule,
let him be severely punished.

Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

"Stay away from your enemies but guard yourself against friends," Ben Sirach wrote in Ecclesiasticus. The rule knows that false friendship is bad for the person and bad for the community as well. In a life dedicated to spiritual growth and direction, there is no room for multiple masters. Friends who protect us from our need to grow are not friends at all. People who allow a personal agenda, our need to be right or their need to shield, block the achievement of a broader vision in us and betray us. Supporters who risk dividing a group into factions over personal tensions rather than to allow individuals to work their way positively through the hard points of life, barter the spirit and peace of the whole community. We are taught in the Rule not to take sides in issues of personal interpretation and spiritual challenge. We are to hold one another up during hard times, Chapter 27 indicates, but we are not to turn personal difficulty into public warfare. The groups that would be better off if individuals had refused to turn differences of opinion into moral irreconciliables are legion. The Desert Monastics say that one of the disciples asked Abba Sisoes one day, "If I am sitting in the desert and a barbarian comes to kill me and if I am stronger than he, shall I kill him?" The old man said to him, 'No, leave him to God. In fact whatever the trial is which comes to a person, let them say,"This has happened to me because of my sins," and if something good comes say, "This has happened to me because of the providence of God."

Life is not perfect; some of life just is. A great deal of mental, psychological and spiritual health comes from learning to endure the average heat of the average day and to wear both its banes and its blessings with a tempered heart. No warfare. No armies mobilized on the plain. No identification of enemies. Just life.
++++++++++

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

Monday, August 27, 2007 Venerable Confessor
Hosios, Bishop of Cordoba
Kellia: Joshua 2:15-22 Epistle: 2 Corinthians
12:10-19 Gospel: St. Mark4:10-23

Rahab the Ancestor ~ 4:The Scarlet Cord: Joshua 2:15-24 LXX, especially
vs. 18: "Behold, we shall enter into a part of the city, and thou shalt
set a sign; thou shalt bind this scarlet cord in the window, by which
thou hast let us down, and thou shalt bring in to thyself, into thy
house, thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all the family
of thy father." In a conspiracy, safety for the principals is urgent.
Plainly, safety was crucial in the alliance of Rahab and the spies who
came to reconnoiter Jericho. The scouts were not to be captured by the
king of Jericho, for the general security of the army of Israel had to
be assured. Further, Rahab, along with her family, was to be saved
during assault on the city and the annihilation of its people.

The present portion of the narrative concerning Rahab reminds all of us
who call ourselves Christians - the People of God - that it is necessary
to look out after each other's well-being in the face of all enemies,
physical or spiritual. The scarlet cord dangling from a window of
Rahab's house, which physically was part of the walls of Jericho, served
as a warning to all the soldiers of Joshua's army to protect that home
and family during the destruction of the city.

Let none assume, because he lives in "healthful seasons" and during
"peaceful times" that he is safe from enemies. Partially, this
statement is a reminder to be on the watch for the criminal elements
around us and of the dangers they pose. Those are real enough. Mostly,
the reading is a caution concerning the sinister spiritual forces of the
unseen "king who rules over this world," the ruler of this present
"Jericho" (Jn. 16:11). In this temporary life, God expects us to care
for one another as Rahab cared for the spies. What knowledge we have of
"the terrain" of this world, we do well to pass on as life-saving truth
for those we care about, whether family members or those with whom we
are joined in Christ.

Rahab directed the spies to "go into the hill-country" (vs. 16), that is
"the nearby mountains." No doubt she had in mind the rugged country
northwest of Jericho, an area filled with crevices and caves, an ideal
region for hiding from the king's patrols. One tradition believes this
to be the same desert region where the Lord was tempted. What are the
"mountains" of safety toward which we should direct our loved ones and
seek to hide ourselves? Are they not the Church's Holy Mysteries of
Confession and Communion? Is not worship the safe place of temporary
retreat while the enemy is searching us out, to capture and bring us
into his death grip? Ascetic disciplines, including the reading of Holy
Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers are a protective cover from
the probing machinations of the powers of darkness.

The spies told Rahab to use a scarlet cord as a marker to guarantee her
safety and the safety of her loved ones. Here is a reminder to use
tangible signs for pointing to spiritual safety. A cross on the wall,
holy icons in a corner, our prayer books, and candles alert us and ward
off our dread foe. Let us place a scarlet cord of prayer before God.
When we are apart from the Church, physical signs in our homes, cars,
and wallets are God's signals, telling us I Am your Protector. Locks on
our doors, insurance policies, and security systems have a value, but
cannot provide much-needed spiritual shelter. "I will dwell in Thy
tabernacle unto the ages, I shall be sheltered in the shelter of Thy
wings" (Ps. 60:4 LXX).

If anyone calls himself a Christian and fails to keep scarlet cords
around him, to heed the teachings of the Church that mark out the place
of true safety from sworn enemies, "then his guilt shall be upon him,
and [the Lord and the Saints] shall be quit of this thine oath" (vs. 19).

O God, our help, our only hope and refuge, we flee to Thee for relief
and comfort, trusting to Thine infinite love and compassion to deliver
us from all the assaults of the enemy.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home