Cyprian: peace in the storm's heart

Saturday, August 24, 2019
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
    —Romans 12:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see—brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians—and I am one of them.
    ... St. Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus) (?-258), a letter in A Treasury of Sermon Illustrations, Charles Langworthy Wallis, ed., Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1950, p. 59 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 12:20-21; John 14:1; 16:32-33; 2 Cor. 1:3-4; 13:11; 1 Thess. 3:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the strength of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Soper: the greatest fallacy

Friday, August 23, 2019
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
    —Acts 17:32 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Fallacies about Christianity must always be faced as deterrents to right living, and not merely as mistakes in the mind, for it is the effect they have on our actions which matters most. So soon as we abstract them from our lives and think of them only as faults in our mental machinery, we tend to embrace the greatest fallacy of all—which is to think of Christianity as a way of looking at life instead of a way of changing it.
    ... Donald O. Soper (1903-1998), Popular Fallacies about the Christian Faith, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938, p. 76 (see the book)
    See also Acts 17:32; Jer. 6:16-17; Matt. 8:21-22; Luke 9:59-62; 14:16-24; John 5:39-40; 2 Cor. 6:1-2; Heb. 3:7-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, never allow me to forget how You have changed my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Therese of Lisieux: to live of love

Thursday, August 22, 2019
Meditation:
    As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.
    —Luke 8:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
To live of love, it is when Jesus sleeps
    To sleep near Him, though stormy waves beat nigh.
Deem not I shall awake Him! On these deeps
    Peace reigns, like that the Blessed know on high.
To Hope, the voyage seems one little day;
    Faith’s hand shall soon the veil between remove;
’Tis Charity that swells my sail alway.
        I live of love!
    ... Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), Poems of St. Teresa, Carmelite of Lisieux, Boston, Angel Guardian Press, 1907, “To Live of Love”, n. 9 (see the book)
    See also Luke 8:23-24; John 14:27; 1 Cor. 13:13
Quiet time reflection:
    True love comes from You, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ryle: leading to a fall

Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Meditation:
O LORD, be gracious to us;
    we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
    our salvation in time of distress.
    —Isaiah 33:2 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Bibles read without prayer; sermons heard without prayer; marriages contracted without prayer; journeys undertaken without prayer; residences chosen without prayer; friendships formed without prayer; the daily act of prayer itself hurried over, or gone through without heart: these are the kind of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy, or reaches the point where God allows them to have a tremendous fall.
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), A Call to Prayer, published in the 1850’s as a pamphlet, American Tract Society, 1867, sec. VI (see the book)
    See also Ps. 88:1-2; 5:3; 63:4; 141:1-2; Pr. 15:8; Isa. 33:2; Rom. 12:12; 1 Thess. 5:17; 1 Tim. 2:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your strength upholds me through prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: O Jesus, King most wonderful!

Tuesday, August 20, 2019
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
    —John 1:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
O Jesus, King most wonderful!
    O Conqueror renowned!
O Source of peace ineffable,
    In whom all joys are found:

When once you visit darkened hearts
    Then truth begins to shine,
Then earthly vanity departs,
    Then kindles love divine.

O Jesus, light of all below,
    The fount of life and fire,
Surpassing all the joys we know,
    All that we can desire:

May ev’ry heart confess your name,
    Forever you adore,
And, seeking you, itself inflame
    To seek you more and more!

Oh, may our tongues forever bless,
    May we love you alone
And ever in our lives express
    The image of your own!
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) & Edward Caswall (1814-1878), Lyra Catholica, New York: E. Dunigan and Brother, 1851, p. 103-104 (see the book)
    See also John 1:4; Isa. 9:6; John 1:9; 8:12; 12:46; 1 Cor. 11:1; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, remake us to be like Yourself.

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Grosse: Christ makes all the difference

Monday, August 19, 2019
Meditation:
Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”
    Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.
    —Psalm 4:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When Christ reveals Himself there is satisfaction in the slenderest portion, and without Christ there is emptiness in the greatest fulness.
    ... Alexander Grosse (1595/6-1654), quoted in The Treasury of David, v. I, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1883, p. 44 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 4:6; 22:26; Isa. 65:13-14; Mic. 6:14; Matt. 5:6; Luke 1:53; John 4:13-14; 6:27,49-50; 7:38-39
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You illuminate our world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Johnson: the beauty of heaven

Sunday, August 18, 2019
Meditation:
    The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
    —Revelation 21:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
My windows open to the autumn night,
In vain I watched for sleep to visit me:
How should sleep dull mine ears, and dim my sight,
Who saw the stars, and listened to the sea?

Ah, how the City of our God is fair!
If, without sea, and starless though it be,
For joy of the majestic beauty there,
Men shall not miss the stars, nor mourn the sea.
    ... Lionel P. Johnson (1867-1902), Poems, London: Elkin Mathews, 1895, p. 77 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 21:23-24; Isa. 24:23; 60:19-20; Rev. 22:5
Quiet time reflection:
    I know no light but Yours, Lord.

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