Neale: O come, O come, Emmanuel

Saturday, December 12, 2015
Meditation:
    Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
    —Matthew 1:23 (KJV)
Quotation:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
    ... Anonymous & John Mason Neale (1818-1866), Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, London: Joseph Masters, 1863, p. 171 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 1:23; Ps. 46:7; Isa. 7:14; 53:5; Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45; John 1:14; 10:14-15; Rom. 3:24-26; Eph. 1:7; 5:1-2; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; Heb. 9:15; Rev. 5:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the atonement. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: meeting Jesus

Friday, December 11, 2015
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
    —Revelation 3:20 (KJV)
Quotation:
    We are faced with the shocking reality: Jesus stands at the door and knocks, in complete reality. He asks you for help in the form of a beggar, in the form of a ruined human being in torn clothing. He confronts you in every person that you meet. Christ walks on the earth as your neighbor as long as there are people. He walks on the earth as the one through whom God calls you, speaks to you and makes his demands. That is the greatest seriousness and the greatest blessedness of the Advent message. Christ stands at the door. He lives in the form of the person in our midst. Will you keep the door locked or open it to him?
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 196 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 3:20; Matt. 10:40-42; 25:35-40; Luke 14:12-14; 2 Cor. 9:7; Heb. 6:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, enter. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Merton: God's enemy?

Thursday, December 10, 2015
    Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968
Meditation:
    Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
    —1 Peter 2:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is an enemy of God just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy precisely because he can find nothing in you that gives glory to God. Perhaps he fears you because he can find nothing in you of God’s love and God’s kindness and God’s patience and mercy and understanding of the weaknesses of men.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), New Seeds of Contemplation [1961], New Directions Publishing, 1972, p. 177 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:12; Matt. 5:14-16,43-45; Luke 6:27-28,35; Rom. 12:14,20-21; 2 Cor. 9:13; 1 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, warm my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Buechner: our longing for him

Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Meditation:
    Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
    —Hebrews 2:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    What keeps the wild hope of Christmas alive year after year in a world notorious for dashing all hopes is the haunting dream that the child who was born that day may yet be born again even in us and our own snowbound, snowblind longing for him.
    ... Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, Zondervan, 2007, p. 96 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 2:11; Ps. 119:81; Pr. 13:12; Luke 2:8-14; 2 Cor. 5:1-4; Heb. 11:13-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have come to be present within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Laubach: compassion was born at Christmas

Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Meditation:
My soul faints with longing for your salvation,
    but I have put my hope in your word.
My eyes fail, looking for your promise;
    I say, “When will you comfort me?”
Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke,
    I do not forget your decrees.
    —Psalm 119:81-38 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When compassion for the common man was born on Christmas Day, with it was born new hope among the multitudes. They feel a great, ever-rising determination to lift themselves and their children out of hunger and disease and misery, up to a higher level. Jesus started a fire upon the earth, and it is burning hot today. The fire of a new hope is in the hearts of the hungry multitudes.
    ... Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970), The World is Learning Compassion, NJ: Revell, 1958, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 119:81-83; Matt. 25:34-36; Luke 1:46-55; Rom. 15:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You give purpose to life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ambrose: the contract of faith

Monday, December 7, 2015
    Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397
Meditation:
    “Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
    [Jesus] saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?”
    “Caesar’s,” they replied.
    He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
    —Luke 20:22-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Be unwilling then, if thou wouldest not offend Caesar, to possess worldly goods. And thou rightly teachest, first to render the things which be Caesar’s. For no one can be the Lord’s unless he has first renounced the world. Oh most galling chain! To promise to God, and pay not. Far greater is the contract of faith than that of money.
    ... St. Ambrose of Milan (Aurelius Ambrosius) (339-397), Catena aurea, v. III, part 2, Thomas Aquinas, p. 663 (see the book)
    See also Luke 20:19-26; John 15:19; Acts 4:34-35; 5:1-11; Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:1-2; 1 Tim. 6:10; 1 John 2:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to place what I have at Your disposal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Arnold: going through judgment

Sunday, December 6, 2015
    Advent II
    Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326
Meditation:
    While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
    —Luke 2:6-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Advent is a time when we await God’s intervention in the need of the present day, as he intervened then in Jesus’ birth. We long for the highest power to rescue this unhappy, torn humanity that knows so little community. Now is the time to ask God for a radical change in all things, even if this means we must go through judgment.
    ... Eberhard Arnold (1883-1935), When the Time was Fulfilled, Farmington, PA: Plough, 1965, p. 3 (see the book)
    See also Luke 2:6-7; Mark 1:15; Rom. 8:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we celebrate Your coming. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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