Michelangelo: To the Supreme Being

Saturday, November 24, 2012
Meditation:
    Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
    —Romans 9:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed,
If Thou the spirit give by which I pray:
My unassisted heart is barren clay,
That of its native self can nothing feed:
Of good and pious works Thou art the seed,
That quickens only where Thou sayest it may:
Unless Thou shew to us Thine own true way,
No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.
Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind
By which such virtue may in me be bred
That in Thy holy footsteps I may tread;
The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,
That I may have the power to sing of Thee,
And sound Thy praises everlastingly.
    ... Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475-1564), translated by William Wordsworth in The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, William Wordsworth, Philadelphia: Troutman & Hayes, 1851, p. 220 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, mold me into a vessel of mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Atkinson: church health

Friday, November 23, 2012
    Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100
Meditation:
    And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
    —Matthew 24:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [After the Ascension, the Apostles] returned to the city, conscious that they were entrusted with the Gospel message which was the salvation of the world, and at the end of their task they would again meet face to face the Lord Who had committed it to them. From that day to this, these two themes have been inseparable from health in the church.
    ... B. F. C. Atkinson (1895-1971), Valiant in Fight, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions, 1937, p. 11 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may Your people be busy in preaching the gospel when You return. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: summoned inside

Thursday, November 22, 2012
    Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
    Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963
    Thanksgiving (U.S.)
Meditation:
How lovely is your dwelling place,
    O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.
    —Psalm 84:1-2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both the glory and honor beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), “The Weight of Glory” in The Weight of Glory, and other addresses, Macmillan Co., 1949, p. 12 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have healed me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newman: taking up the cross

Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Meditation:
    Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
    —Romans 13:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To take up the cross of Christ is no great action done once for all; it consists in the continual practice of small duties which are distasteful to us.
    ... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Parochial Sermons, v. 1, New York: D. Appleton, 1843, p. 42 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me more aware of my neighbor’s needs. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: free space

Tuesday, November 20, 2012
    Feast of Edmund of the East Angles, Martyr, 870
    Commemoration of Priscilla Lydia Sellon, a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876
Meditation:
    But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
    —Luke 5:16 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We should always consider with greatest concern (even if it is only in a casual conversation or when we are alone with ourselves) that a free space is left through which God Himself can come to us.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), from “He Himself” in Come Holy Spirit: Sermons, New York: Round Table Press, 1933, reprint, Mowbrays, 1978, p. 161 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I flee the world’s distractions to be with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: as He will

Monday, November 19, 2012
    Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680
    Commemoration of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary, Philanthropist, 1231
    Commemoration of Mechtild, Bèguine of Magdeburg, Mystic, Prophet, 1280
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
    —John 3:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [The Holy Spirit is voluntarily] distributing to every one as he will; and therefore is this work done in so great variety, both as to the same person and divers. For the same person, full of joy sometimes in a great distress, full of consolation,—every promise brings sweetness when his pressures are great and heavy; another time, in the least trial [he] seeks for comfort, searches the promise, and it is far away. The reason is, the Spirit distributes as he will. And so with divers persons: to some each promise is full of life and comfort; others taste little all their days;—all upon the same account. And this faith especially regards in the whole business of consolation:—it depends on the sovereign will of the Holy Ghost; and so is not tied unto any rules or course of procedure.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost [1657], in Works of John Owen, v. II, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 238 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit creates new people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Yancey: marking time?

Sunday, November 18, 2012
Meditation:
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,
    shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
    —Proverbs 4:18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass.
    ... Philip Yancey (b. 1949), Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, p. 237 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have made Your people show forth the kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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