Mother Teresa: prayer

Saturday, September 1, 2018
    Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710
Meditation:
    For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
    —Romans 10:10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of himself.
    ... Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) (1910-1997), Something Beautiful for God: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Malcolm Muggeridge, London: Collins, 1971, p. 66 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 10:10; 15:30; 2 Cor. 8:16; Gal. 1:3-5; 2:20; Eph. 5:1-2; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; Tit. 2:12-14; Heb. 3:12; 10:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to pray with my life as well as my lips. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bunyan: afflictions

Friday, August 31, 2018
    Feast of Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 651
    Commemoration of Cuthburga, Founding Abbess of Wimborne, c.725
    Commemoration of John Bunyan, Spiritual Writer, 1688
Meditation:
    Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
    —2 Corinthians 4:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Afflictions make the heart more deep, more experimental, more knowing and profound, and so, more able to hold, to contain, and beat more.
    ... John Bunyan (1628-1688), “Of the Resurrection of the Dead”, in The Whole Works of John Bunyan, v. II, London: Blackie, 1862, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 4:16-17; Ps. 30:5; 119:71; Rom. 8:18; 1 Cor. 3:8; 1 Pet. 1:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Grant that I may deliver Your word of encouragement, Lord, to one who is enduring affliction. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: the Bible as literature

Thursday, August 30, 2018
Meditation:
BEHOLD now, praise the Lord :
    all ye servants of the Lord;
Ye that by night stand in the house of the Lord :
    even in the courts of the house of our God.
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary :
    and praise the Lord.
The Lord that made heaven and earth :
    give thee blessing out of Sion.
    —Ps. 134 (Coverdale)
Quotation:
    Those who talk of reading the Bible “as literature” sometimes mean, I think, reading it without attending to the main thing it is about; like reading Burke with no interest in politics, or reading the Aeneid with no interest in Rome... But there is a saner sense in which the Bible—since it is, after all, literature—cannot properly be read except as literature, and the different parts of it as the different sorts of literature they are. Most emphatically, the Psalms must be read as poems—as lyrics, with all the licenses and all the formalities, the hyperboles, the emotional rather than logical connections, which are proper to lyric poetry... Otherwise we shall miss what is in them and think we see what is not.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Reflections on the Psalms, Edinburgh: James Thin, 1958; G. Bles, 1958, p. 3 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 134; 1:1-3; 22:1; 26:8-10; 42:1-2; 46; 51:1-3,7,10; 72:1-8; 85:8; 119:1-8; 121; 136
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I sing the song Your Spirit has taught me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: rising early

Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Meditation:
    For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
    —Titus 2:11-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If you were to rise early every morning, as an instance of self-denial, as a method of renouncing indulgence, as a means of redeeming your time, and fitting your spirit for prayer, you would find mighty advantages from it. This method, though it seem such a small circumstance of life, would in all probability be a means of great piety. It would keep it constantly in your head, that softness and idleness were to be avoided, that self-denial was a part of Christianity... It would teach you to exercise power over yourself, and make you able by degrees to renounce other pleasures and tempers that war against the soul.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 239-240 (see the book)
    See also Tit. 2:11-14; Matt. 10:37-38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23-26; Col. 1:24; 2 Tim. 3:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that rejoices in self-denial for the sake of the Kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Augustine: fit for eternity

Tuesday, August 28, 2018
    Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Teacher, 430
Meditation:
Praise him, all his angels,
    praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon,
    praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens
    and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
    for he commanded and they were created.
    —Psalm 148:2-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    None can become fit for the future life, who hath not practiced himself for it now.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Expositions on the Book of Psalms, v. VI, Oxford: Parker, 1857, Ps. CXLVIII, p. 415-416 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 148:2-5; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23; John 3:16-18; 4:35-36; 6:27; 17:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your song is in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brother Lawrence: our heart with our treasure

Monday, August 27, 2018
    Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
    —Matthew 6:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You will tell me that I am always saying the same thing. It is true, for this is the best and easiest method I know; and as I use no other, I advise all the world to it. We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Ninth Letter, p. 37 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:19-21; Isa. 33:6; Luke 12:32-34; 2 Cor. 4:18; Col. 3:1-3; Heb. 3:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are present to me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Flavel: the evil of sin

Sunday, August 26, 2018
Meditation:
    No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
    —1 John 3:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    O the depth of the evil of sin! If ever you will see how great and horrid an evil sin is, measure it in your thoughts, either by the infinite holiness and excellency of God, who is wrong’d by it; or by the infinite sufferings of Christ, who died to satisfy for it; and then you will have deeper apprehensions of the evil of sin.
    ... John Flavel (1628-1691), Serm. XIV from The Fountain of Life [1671], in The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel, v. I, Paisley: A. Weir and A. McLean, 1770, p. 199 (see the book)
    See also Lev. 20:26; Song of Solomon 2:15; Ps. 99:9; John 3:20; Rom. 7:13; Heb. 12:1; 1 Pet. 1:10-11; 4:1; 1 John 3:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I fear to know the extent of my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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