Farjeon: Morning has broken

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Meditation:
In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
    in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
    —Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

Quotation:
Morning has broken like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!

Sweet the new rain’s fall sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
Spring in completeness where His feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning
Born of the one light Eden saw play!
Praise with elation, praise ev’ry morning,
God’s re-creation of the new day!
    ... Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965), The New Book of Days, H. Z. Walck, 1961, p. 105 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I am grateful for a new day in Your service.

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Cox: after forty years

Friday, August 14, 2009
    Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941

Meditation:
    So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”
    He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
    —Mark 7:5-8 (NIV)

Quotation:
    The dual role of personification of the past and preserver of a subcultural ethos, a role clergymen play quite avidly, takes its toll when they speak of God. Because of the role they have been willing to play, when they use the word God it is heard in a certain way. It is heard, often with deference and usually with courtesy, as a word referring to the linchpin of the era of Christendom (past) or as the totem of one of the tribal subcultures (irrelevant). The only way clergy can ever change the way in which the word they use is perceived is to refuse to play the role of antiquarian and medicine man in which the society casts them; but this is difficult, because it is what they are paid for.
    ... Harvey Cox (b. 1929), The Secular City, New York: MacMillan Company, 1965, p. 246 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have set Your people free from the vain imaginations of men. Help us not to prefer bondage.

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Taylor: for grace to spend our time well

Thursday, August 13, 2009
    Feast of Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down & Connor, Priest, Teacher, 1667
    Commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Social Reformer, 1910
    Commemoration of Octavia Hill, Worker for the Poor, 1912

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
    —Matthew 24:42 (NIV)

Quotation:
    O eternal God, who from all eternity dost behold and love thy own glories and perfections infinite, and hast created me to do the work of God after the manner of men, and to serve thee in this generation and according to my capacities; give me thy grace, that I may be a curious and prudent spender of my time, so as I may best prevent or resist all temptation, and be profitable to the Christian commonwealth, and by discharging all my duty may glorify thy name. Take from me all slothfulness, and give me a diligent and an active spirit, and wisdom to choose my employment; that I may do works proportionable to my person, and to the dignity of a Christian, and may fill up all the spaces of my time with actions of religion and charity; that, when the devil assaults me he may not find me idle, and my dearest Lord at his sudden coming may find me busy in lawful, necessary, and pious actions; improving my talent entrusted to me by thee, my Lord; that I may enter into the joy of my Lord, to partake of his eternal felicities, even for thy mercy’s sake, and for my dearest Saviour’s sake. Amen.
    ... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living [1650], in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. III, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847, p. 29 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I give the time of my living back to You.

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Owen on forgiving others

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Meditation:
    [Jesus:] For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
    —Matthew 6:14,15 (NIV)

Quotation:
    Our forgiving of others will not procure forgiveness for ourselves; but our not forgiving others proves that we ourselves are not forgiven.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), An Exposition upon Psalm CXXX [1668], in Works of John Owen, v. VI, New York: R. Carter & Bros., 1851, p. 497 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Implant a spirit of forgiveness within me, Lord.

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Newman et al.: the necessity of faith

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
    Feast of Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Order of Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253
    Commemoration of John Henry Newman, Priest, Teacher, Tractarian, 1890

Meditation:
    Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).
    —John 1:40,41 (NIV)

Quotation:
    We were made for action, and for right action—for thought, and for true thought. Let us live while we live; let us be alive and doing; let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish. Let us believe what we do not see and know. Let us forestall knowledge by faith. Let us maintain before we have proved. This seeming paradox is the secret of happiness. Why should we be unwilling to go by faith? We do all things in this world by faith in the word of others. By faith only we know our position in the world, our circumstances, our rights and privileges, our fortunes, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our age, our mortality. Why should religion be an exception? Why should we be unwilling to use for heavenly objects what we daily use for earthly?
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), John Keble (1792-1866) & Edward B. Pusey (1800-1882), Tracts for the Times, v. V, William Palmer, Richard Hurrell Froude & Isaac Williams, London: Rivington, 1840, p. 84-85 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I not be held back by doubt.

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Phillips: taking God as your leader

Monday, August 10, 2009
    Feast of Lawrence, Deacon at Rome, Martyr, 258

Meditation:
    My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
    —1 Corinthians 1:11-13 (NIV)

Quotation:
    There are doubtless many reasons for the degeneration of Christianity into churchiness, and the narrowing of the Gospel for all mankind into a set of approved beliefs; but the chief cause must be the worship of an inadequate god—a cramped and regulated god who is a ‘good churchman’ according to the formulas of the worshipper. For actual behaviour infallibly betrays the real object of the man’s worship. All Christians, whatever their Church, would of course instantly repudiate the idea that their god was a super-example of their own denomination, and it is not suggested that the worship is conscious. Nevertheless, beneath the conscious critical level of the mind it is perfectly possible for the Anglo-Catholic, for example, to conceive God as particularly pleased with Anglo-Catholicism, doubtful about Evangelicalism, and frankly displeased by all forms of Nonconformity... The ultra-low Churchman on the other hand must admit, if he is honest, that the God whom he worships disapproves most strongly of vestments, incense, and candles on the altar. The tragedy of these examples—which could be reproduced ad nauseam any day of the week—is not difference of opinion, which will probably be with us till the Day of Judgment, but the outrageous folly and damnable sin of trying to regard God as the Party Leader of a particular point of view.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Your God is too small [1953], Simon and Schuster, 2004, p. 38 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, only You lead Your church.

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Meynell: His planet

Sunday, August 9, 2009
    Feast of Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers’ Union, 1921

Meditation:
    How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
    —Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)

Quotation:

CHRIST IN THE UNIVERSE

    With this ambiguous earth
His dealings have been told us. These abide:
The signal to a maid, the human birth,
The lesson, and the young Man crucified.

    But not a star of all
The innumerable host of stars has heard
How he administered this terrestrial ball.
Our race has kept their Lord’s entrusted Word.

    Of his earth-visiting feet
None knows the secret, cherished, perilous,
The terrible, shamefast, frightened, whispered, sweet,
Heart-shattering secret of his way with us.

    No planet knows that this
Our wayside planet, carrying land and wave,
Love and life multiplied, and pain and bliss,
Bears, as its chief treasure, one forsaken grave.

    Nor, in our little day,
May his devices with the heavens be guessed,
His pilgrimage to thread the Milky Way
Or his bestowal there be manifest.

    But in the eternities,
Doubtless we shall compare together, hear
A million alien Gospels, in what guise
He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear.

    O, be prepared, my soul!
To read the inconceivable, to scan
The million forms of God those stars unroll
When, in our turn, we show to them a Man.
    ... Alice Meynell (1847-1922), Collected Poems of Alice Meynell [1913], READ BOOKS, 2008, p. 58 (see the book)

Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, wherever I may go, You reign supreme.

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