Fenelon: shrinking from health

Saturday, September 17, 2016
    Feast of St. Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”
    —Mark 2:9-11 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The more we fear crosses, the more reason we have to think that we stand in need of them: let us not be dejected when the hand of God layeth heavy ones upon us. We ought to judge of the violence of our disease by the violence of the remedies which our spiritual physician prescribes us. It is a great argument of our wretchedness and of God’s mercy, that, notwithstanding the difficulty of our recovery, He vouchsafes to undertake our cure.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Pious Reflections for Every Day in the Month, London: H. D. Symonds, 1800, p. 33-34 (see the book)
    See also Mark 2:9-11; Gen. 18:14; Ps. 41:4; 147:3; Hos. 14:4; Matt. 9:12-13; 17:20; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31; 14:27; Phil. 3:21; 4:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord Jesus, You are the Messiah, the great Physician. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pusey: the grace of patience

Friday, September 16, 2016
    Feast of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, Martyr, 258
    Commemoration of Ninian, Bishop of Galloway, Apostle to the Picts, c. 430
    Commemoration of Edward Bouverie Pusey, Priest, tractarian, 1882
Meditation:
    May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
    —Colossians 1:11-12 (ESV)
Quotation:
    We have need of patience with ourselves and with others; with those below and those above us, and with our own equals; with those who love us, and those who love us not; for the greatest things and for the least; against sudden inroads of trouble, and under daily burdens; [against] disappointments as to the weather or the breaking of the heart; in the weariness of the body, or the wearing of the soul; in our own failure of duty, or others’ failure towards us; in every day wants, or in the aching of sickness or the decay of old age; in disappointment, bereavement, losses, injuries, reproaches; in heaviness of the heart, or its sickness amid delayed hopes... In all these things, from childhood’s little troubles to the martyr’s sufferings, patience is the grace of God, whereby we endure evil for the love of God.
    ... Edward B. Pusey (1800-1882), Parochial Sermons, v. II, London: Rivingtons, 1868, p. 80-81 (see the book)
    See also Col. 1:11-12; Acts 5:41; Rom. 5:3-5; 2 Cor. 12:9-10; Eph. 4:2; 2 Tim. 2:3; Heb. 12:1-2; Jas. 1:2-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, add patience to Your gifts to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lindskoog: society or humanity

Thursday, September 15, 2016
Meditation:
“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
    the ends of the earth your possession.
You will rule them with an iron scepter;
    you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
    —Psalm 2:8-9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Christ did not die for society, but for humanity.
    ... Kathryn Lindskoog (1934-2003), C. S. Lewis, Mere Christian, Glendale, Cal.: G/L Publications, 1973, reprint, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1981, p. 75 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 2:8-12; 22:27; Isa. 11:1-5,10; John 3:16-17; Rom. 8:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the nations groan to know Your rule. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. Francis: temptation

Wednesday, September 14, 2016
    Feast of the Holy Cross
Meditation:
    Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
    —James 1:2-4 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Be not afraid that thou art tempted, for the more thou art assailed by temptations, the greater friend and servant of God do I hold thee, and the greater love do I bear thee. Verily, I say to thee, let no man deem himself the perfect friend of God until he have passed through many temptations and tribulations... I am ready to endure patiently all things that my Lord would do with me.
    ... Ugolino of Montegiorgio (d.1274), quoting St. Francis, The Little Flowers of St. Francis, London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1912, p. 106,113 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 1:2-4; Matt. 4:1; Luke 4:1-2; Heb. 2:10,18; 1 Pet. 1:6-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I do not greet trials with joy. May You straighten my heart out so that this Scripture becomes true in me as well. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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St. John Chrysostom: the nature of resurrection

Tuesday, September 13, 2016
    Feast of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher, 407
Meditation:
    It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
    —1 Corinthians 15:44 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up in life. These are words by which the slanderers of the nature of the body, the impeachers of our flesh, are completely overthrown... We do not wish to cast aside the body, but corruption: not the flesh, but death. The body is one thing, corruption another; the body is one thing, death another... What is foreign to us is not the body but corruptibility.
    ... St. John Chrysostom (345?-407), from On the Resurrection of the Dead, quoted in The New Christian Year, Charles Williams, London: Oxford University Press, 1958, p. 108 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:44; 15:54; 2 Cor. 5:1-4; Eph. 4:22-24; 1 John 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rejoice in the life You have given me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Browne: alms: charity or self-interest

Monday, September 12, 2016
Meditation:
    For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.
    —2 Corinthians 9:12-14 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If we are directed only by our particular natures, and regulate our inclinations by no higher rule than that of our reasons, we are but moralists; Divinity will still call us heathens. Therefore this great work of charity must have other motives, ends, and impulsions. I give no alms to satisfy the hunger of my brother, but to fulfil and accomplish the will and command of my God; I draw not my purse for his sake that demands it, but his that enjoined it; I relieve no man upon the rhetoric of his miseries, nor to content mine own commiserating disposition, for this is still but moral charity, and an act that oweth more to passion than reason.
    ... Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), Religio Medici [1643], W. Murison, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1922, II.2, p. 85-86 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 9:12-14; Matt. 5:42; 2 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 13:16; 1 John 3:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hear Your word and obey with my alms. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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White: by small steps

Sunday, September 11, 2016
Meditation:
    And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.
    When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
    —2 Kings 22:8-13 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Our faith and our friendships are not shattered by one big act, but by many small neglects.
    ... J. Gustav White (b. 1881) (see the book)
    See also 2 Kings 22:8-13; Luke 11:42; Rom. 12:6-8,12; 2 Cor. 9:6; 1 John 4:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, correct my negligence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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