Category: Daybook

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Daybook Spirituality

Daybook: January 5, 2011

January 5, 2011

Lectionary

1 Jn 4:11-18

Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.

This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his Spirit.
Moreover, we have seen and testify
that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.
Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.
We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.

God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
In this is love brought to perfection among us,
that we have confidence on the day of judgment
because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love,
but perfect love drives out fear
because fear has to do with punishment,
and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.


Reflection

“He is our clothing.  In his love he wraps and holds us.  He enfolds us for love, and he will never let us go.”

— Julian of Norwich

Prayer

Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
(Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8)

Categories
Daybook Spirituality

Daybook: January 4, 2011

January 4, 2011

Lectionary

1 John 4:7-10:

Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

Reflection

“Throughout the course of his life every Christian has enough to learn and practice about baptism, for he has always to see that he steadfastly believes what it promises and carries with it: victory over death and the devil, remission of sin, the grace of God, Christ in all his fullness, and the Holy Ghost with all his gifts.

My first words when the devil assaults me – ‘I have been baptized!'”

— Martin Luther

Prayer

Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
(Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8)

Categories
Daybook Spirituality

Daybook: Jan. 3, 2011

January 3, 2011

Lectionary

1 John 3:22 – 4:6:

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Life

Today is the feast day of St. Genevieve of Paris.  She was born to wealthy parents in Gaul, near Paris, around 422.  The local Bishop recognized when she was a young child that she would become a great spiritual leader.  When she was very young, she and a group of nuns prayed that Paris would be spared as Attila the Hun approached.  The Huns chose not to sack Paris.  Later in life, as a nun, a number of miracles and mystical insights were attributed to her.  In the middle ages, she became the patron saint of wine makers.

Prayer

May his Name remain for ever and be established as long as the sun endures;
may all the nations bless themselves in him and call him blessed.
Blessed be the Lord GOD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous deeds!
And blessed be his glorious Name for ever! and may all the earth be filled with
his glory. Amen. Amen. (Ps. 72:17-19)

Categories
Daybook

Daybook: January 2, 2011

January 2, 2011

Lectionary

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.  “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.  He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route”

Life

Today the Eastern church celebrates the life of Righteous Juliana. She lived in Russia in the 1530’s.  She was married and had seven children.  She heroically cared for the poor and sick during a terrible famine.  After her husband died, she distributed her inheritance to the poor and lived herself in poverty.  It is said that when her relics were uncovered in 1614, they smelled of myrrh, and many were healed.

Julian’s Troparion:

By your righteous deeds you revealed to the world
An image of the perfect servant of the Lord.
By your fasting, vigil and prayers,
You were inspired in your evangelical life,
Feeding the hungry and caring for the poor,
Nursing the sick and strengthening the weak.
Now you stand at the right hand of the Master, Christ,
O holy Juliana, interceding for our souls.

Prayer

May his Name remain for ever and be established as long as the sun endures;
may all the nations bless themselves in him and call him blessed.
Blessed be the Lord GOD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous deeds!
And blessed be his glorious Name for ever! and may all the earth be filled with
his glory. Amen. Amen. (Ps. 72:17-19)

Categories
Daybook

Daybook: January 1, 2011

On this first day of 2011, I’m introducing a new feature here at TG Darkly:  the Daybook.  “Daybooks” are devotional guides that track the Church’s liturgical year.  They feature hymns, Psalms, scriptures, lives of the Saints, sermon quotes, and other prompts for spiritual reflection.  As part of my spiritual discipline for this year, I endeavor to offer a Daybook post each day.  I’ll be drawing from a variety of ancient and contemporary sources across denominational traditions.  I hope these posts will serve for readers as a window onto the richness of Christian spirituality and a pointer towards worship.

January 1, 2011

Lectionary

Luke 2:16-21: “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

Life

Today the Eastern church celebrates the life of St. Basil the Great. Basil was a remarkably educated man, who had studied both in Athens and with the desert hermits in Egypt, Syria and Palestine before founding a monastery in Cappadocia. Threatened with persecution from the Arian emperor Valens, Basil responded, “If you take away my possessions, you will not enrich yourself, nor will you make me a pauper. You have no need of my old worn-out clothing, nor of my few books, of which the entirety of my wealth is comprised. Exile means nothing to me, since I am bound to no particular place. This place in which I now dwell is not mine, and any place you send me shall be mine. Better to say: every place is God’s.”

Prayer

May his Name remain for ever and be established as long as the sun endures;
may all the nations bless themselves in him and call him blessed.
Blessed be the Lord GOD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous deeds!
And blessed be his glorious Name for ever!  and may all the earth be filled with
his glory.  Amen.  Amen.  (Ps. 72:17-19)