Athanasius: permeation of the Word

May 2, 2009
    Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Teacher, 373

Meditation:
    For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
    -- John 5:26 (NIV)

Quotation:
    A man’s personality actuates and quickens his whole body. If anyone said it was unsuitable for the man’s power to be in the toe, he would be thought silly, because, while granting that a man penetrates and actuates the whole of his body, he denied his presence in the part. Similarly, no one who admits the presence of the Word of God in the universe as a whole should think it unsuitable for a single human body to be by Him actuated and enlightened.
    ... St. Athanasius (293?-373), On the incarnation, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996, p. 77 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am never apart from You.

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Underhill: here and now

May 1, 2009
    Feast of Philip & James, Apostles

Meditation:
    Consider [Jesus] who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
    -- Hebrews 12:3 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Christianity is a religion which concerns us as we are here and now, creatures of body and soul. We do not “follow the footsteps of his most holy life” by the exercise of a trained religious imagination, but by treading the firm, rough earth, up hill and down dale.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The School of Charity, Morehouse Publishing, 1991, p.52 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cure my impatience with this long, slow work.

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Donne: a fragile concentration

April 30, 2009
    Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922

Meditation:
    And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
    -- Luke 18:7 (NIV)

Quotation:
    A memory of yesterday’s pleasures, a fear of tomorrow’s dangers, a straw under my knees, a noise in mine ear, a light in mine eye, an any thing, a nothing, a fancy, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayers.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. 3, London: John W. Parker, 1839, p. 477 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, strengthen me, for my attention to prayer is so weak.

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Lewis: who needs our prayers?

April 29, 2009
    Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380

Meditation:
    And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
    -- Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Can we believe that God ever really modifies His action in response to the suggestions of man? For infinite wisdom does not need telling what is best, and infinite goodness needs no urging to do it. But neither does God need any of those things that are done by finite agents, whether living or inanimate. He could, if He chose, repair our bodies miraculously without food; or give us food without the aid of farmers, bakers, and butchers; or knowledge without the aid of learned men; or convert the heathen without missionaries. Instead, He allows soils and weather and animals and the muscles, minds, and wills of men to cooperate in the execution of His will. “God,” says Pascal, “instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of causality.” But it is not only prayer; whenever we act at all, He lends us that dignity. It is not really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my other actions should do so.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Efficacy of Prayer, pp. 9-10 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, receive my prayer.

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Bruce: who was worthy?

April 28, 2009
    Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841

Meditation:
    Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.
    Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.
    -- Psalm 72:18,19 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The [Roman] imperial coinage (which was regularly used as a propaganda medium)... is full of the characteristic motifs of Advent and Epiphany, celebrating the blessings which the manifestation of each successive divine emperor was to bring to a waiting world. Among the adulatory formulas with which the emperor was acclaimed, [Prof. Ethelbert Stauffer] mentions, as going back probably to the first century, “Hail, Victory, Lord of the earth, Invincible, Power, Glory, Honor, Peace, Security, Holy, Blessed, Great, Unequalled, Thou Alone, Worthy art Thou, Worthy is he to inherit the Kingdom, Come, come, do not delay, Come again” (p. 155). [in Christ and the Caesars, Ethelbert Stauffer (1955)]. Indeed, one has only to read Psalm 72, “in Latin, in the official language of the empire, to see that it is largely the same formal language which is used alike in the Forum for the advent of the emperor and in the catacombs for the celebration of the Epiphany of Christ” (p. 251). Here there could be no compromise. Who was worthy to ascend the throne of the universe and direct the course of history? Caesar, or Jesus?
    ... Frederick F. Bruce (1910-1991), The Defense of the Gospel in the New Tesatment [1959], p. 63-64 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Jesus, You alone are worthy!

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Rossetti: Heaven overarches earth and sea

April 27, 2009
    Feast of Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894

Meditation:
    But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
    -- 1 Chronicles 29:14-15 (KJV)

Quotation:
    Heaven overarches earth and sea,
        Earth-sadness and sea-bitterness.
    Heaven overarches you and me:
    A little while and we shall be
    (Please God) where there is no more sea
        Nor barren wilderness.

    Heaven overarches you and me,
        And all earth’s gardens and her graves.
    Look up with me, until we see
    The day break and the shadows flee.
    What tho’ tonight wrecks you and me,
        If so tomorrow saves?
    ... Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, from beyond this world, You have provided salvation.

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Studdert Kennedy: the only satisfaction

April 26, 2009

Meditation:
    As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
    My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
    -- Psalm 42:1-2 (KJV)

Quotation:
    If I am a son of God, nothing but God will satisfy my soul; no amount of comfort, no amount of ease, no amount of pleasure, will give me peace or rest. If I had the full cup of all the world’s joys held up to me, and could drain it to the dregs, I should still remain thirsty if I had not God.
    ... G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), The Wicket Gate, pp. 38-39 [1923] (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thirst for You.

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