January 28 – February 3, 2011
Lectionary
Heb 12:18-19, 21-24
Brothers and sisters: You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness
and storm and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them. Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled Blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.
Reflection
“God is invisible, inscrutable, incomprehensible, and so on . . . . Give up all such speculating, which is utterly unrelated to the word of God anyhow. God is saying to you, From the unrevealed God I shall become your own revealed God: I shall incarnate my own beloved Son. . . Behold his dath, his cross, his passion. See him hanging on his mother’s brest, and hanging on the cross. What Christ says and does, you may be sure of. ‘No man cometh to the Father but by me.’ ‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.’ What God is saying to you is this: ‘Here in Christ you have me, here in Christ you will see me. . . . At all costs cling to the revealed God. Allow no one to take the child Jesus from you. Hold fast to Christ, and you will never be lost.'” — Martin Luther
Prayer
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
(from St. Patrick’s Breastplate)