Augustine: cramped quarters

Saturday, November 20, 2021
    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:
    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:
    Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter in.
    ... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, I.v., p. 5 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 3:20; Ps. 19:12-13; 32:5; 101:2; 116:10; 130:3; Rom. 11:32; Col. 1:19-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my heart is open to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbolt: on holy orders

Friday, November 19, 2021
    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:
    Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
    —1 Peter 5:2-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Holy Orders is not a profession which we enter expecting an advance, or some sort of recognition as a right after so many years of work. But it is rather the giving up of self into the hands of God, without stint and without reserve, and letting Him set the work. It is the recognition of the fact that God has many kinds of work to be done, and that the best paid are not always the most honourable... To enter or exercise the ministry with a view to preferment is like marrying for money and not for love.
    ... W. C. E. Newbolt (1844-1930), Speculum Sacerdotum, London: Longmans, Green, 1894, p. 112-113,144 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 5:2-3; John 3:34; 10:12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You lead me to my tasks. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: arm yourself

Thursday, November 18, 2021
Meditation:
    Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
    —Ephesians 6:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Arm yourself like a man against the devil’s assaults. Curb your appetite and you will more easily curb every inclination of the flesh. Never be completely unoccupied, but read or write or pray or meditate or do something for the common good.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.xix.5, p. 57-58 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 6:11; 2 Thess. 3:11-12; Heb. 6:10-11; 1 Pet. 1:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me Your defense against evil inclinations. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: the One who is real

Wednesday, November 17, 2021
    Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200
Meditation:
    By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
    —1 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “Resurrection” is the word that, of all words in the Bible, wants to tell us in the strongest and most unambiguous way: God is not a thought, God is not a word, God is not a feeling. God is the Great One, the True One, the Real and Living One, who waits to meet us precisely at that point where our thoughts about him end.
    ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), from “He Himself” in Come Holy Spirit: Sermons, New York: Round Table Press, 1933, reprint, Mowbrays, 1978, p. 162 (see the book)
    See also John 11:25-26; 1 Cor. 6:14; Phil. 3:10-11; 1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Tim. 1:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the one true God. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: entry into the community

Tuesday, November 16, 2021
    Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
    Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
Meditation:
    For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
    —1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday] It was inconceivable that a Christian taught by St. Paul could think of himself as obtaining a personal salvation by himself. He became one of the brethren. He shared in the common sacraments. The Church was not an invisible body formed of unknown ‘believers’. Men were admitted by their baptism into a very visible society, liable to be attacked by very visible foes. The Apostle who preached to them was a member of it, and he preached as a member of it, and as a member of it he invited them to enter it, to share its privileges and its burdens, its glory and its shame. Entrance into it was guarded by a very definite and unmistakable sacrament.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 76 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 10:14; Rom. 6:3-4; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 6:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead us into true community with one another. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: Paul not individualistic

Monday, November 15, 2021
    Commemoration of Oswald Chambers, spiritual writer, 1917
Meditation:
    Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
    —Galatians 1:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is one ... aspect of St. Paul’s preaching which is often taken for granted, but is certainly not true—that the Gospel of St. Paul was purely individualistic. To the heathen crowd St. Paul addressed himself as to a mass of souls from amongst which he was to gather the elect children of God. But he did not approach them as an isolated prophet: he came as an Apostle of the Church of God, and he did not simply seek to gather out individual souls from amongst the heathen; he gathered them into the society of which he was a member. He did not teach them that they would find salvation by themselves alone, but that they would find it in the perfecting of the Body of Christ. Souls were not invited to enter into an isolated solitary religious life of communion with Christ: they were invited to enter the society in which the Spirit manifested Himself and in which they would share in the communication of His life. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 76 (see the book)
    See also Acts 2:41; 13:46; Gal. 1:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me know my bonds to the brethren. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Vaughan: communion

Sunday, November 14, 2021
    Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796
Meditation:
    Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
    —John 6:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
        O drink and bread,
        Which strikes death dead,
The food of man’s immortal being!
        Under veils here
        Thou art my cheer,
Present and sure without my seeing.
    ... Henry Vaughan (1622-1695), The Poetical Works of Henry Vaughan, Boston: Osgood, 1871, p. 262 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 26:26-30; 1 Cor. 10:16-17;11:23-32; John 6:32-35; Heb. 10:34; 1 Pet. 4:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Thank You, Lord, for the gift of Your body and blood. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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