Catherine of Siena: unquenchable

Saturday, April 29, 2023
    Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380
Meditation:
Taste and see that the LORD is good;
    blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
    —Psalm 34:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    You, O eternal Trinity, are a deep Sea, into which the deeper I enter the more I find, and the more I find the more I seek; the soul cannot be satiated in Your abyss, for she continually hungers after You.
    ... Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Dialog of Catherine of Siena [1378], Treatise of Obedience, xi. (see the book)
    See also Ps. 34:8; 36:5-6; 42:7; Luke 12:32-34; Rom. 11:33; Col. 2:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, feed me with Your eternal food. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Talmage: taking His hand

Friday, April 28, 2023
    Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841
Meditation:
    [Peter:] “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
    —Acts 2:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If your path had been smooth, you would have depended upon your own surefootedness; but God roughened that path, so you have to take hold of His hand. If the weather had been mild, you would have loitered along the watercourses, but at the first howl of the storm you quickened your pace heavenward and wrapped around you the warm robe of a Saviour’s righteousness.
    ... Thomas De Witt Talmage (1832-1902), The Pathway of Life, Historical Publishing Company for the Christian Herald, 1894, p. 100 (see the book)
    See also Acts 2:21; Lam. 3:32-33; Amos 4:6-11; Matt. 14:25-33; Rom. 5:3-4; 8:28; 2 Cor. 4:17; 12:7-9; Jas. 1:12; Rev. 3:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, extend Your protection around me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rossetti: At morn I plucked a rose

Thursday, April 27, 2023
    Feast of Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894
Meditation:
    And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
    —Revelation 21:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    A Rose Plant in Jericho.

At morn I plucked a rose and gave it Thee,
    A rose of joy and happy love and peace,
        A rose with scarce a thorn:
        But in the chillness of a second morn
    My rose bush drooped, and all its gay increase
Was but one thorn that wounded me.

I plucked the thorn and offered it to Thee;
    And for my thorn Thou gavest love and peace,
        Not joy this mortal morn:
        If Thou hast given much treasure for a thorn,
    Wilt Thou not give me for my rose increase
Of gladness, and all sweets to me?

My thorny rose, my love and pain, to Thee
    I offer; and I set my heart in peace,
    &n bsp;   And rest upon my thorn:
        For verily I think to-morrow morn
    Shall bring me Paradise, my gift’s increase,
Yea, give Thy very Self to me.
    ... Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), Christina Rossetti: the complete poems, London: Penguin Classics, 2001, p. 224 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 21:3-5; Matt. 7:13-14; 27:28-29; Mark 15:17; John 14:27; 2 Cor. 12:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I offer You my trials.

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Brainerd: life worth living

Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Meditation:
Why do I put myself in jeopardy
    and take my life in my hands?
Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
    I will surely defend my ways to his face.
    —Job 13:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    As long as I see any thing to be done for God, life is worth having: but O how vain and unworthy it is, to live for any lower end!
    ... David Brainerd (1718-1747), Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd, New Haven: S. Converse, 1822, p. 424 (see the book)
    See also Job 13:14-15; Ps. 39:4-7; 94:11; 119:81; Isa. 47:8-9; Luke 8:14; 12:16-21; Rom. 15:13; Heb. 11:24-26
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me the work You would have me do. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Norbie: the world at enmity with God

Tuesday, April 25, 2023
    Feast of Mark the Evangelist
Meditation:
    The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.
    —1 Corinthians 16:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    For many years the Christians met in homes and never possessed any special buildings for their gatherings. As religio illicita, no thought could be had of a permanent structure for gatherings. This would only facilitate matters for the Roman government in its merciless persecutions. The early Church was very conscious of its pilgrim character in a world which was at enmity with God.
    ... Donald L. Norbie (1923-2014), New Testament Church Organization, Interest, Chicago: 1955, p. 21 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 16:19; Ps. 137:4; Luke 9:54-58; John 15:18-20; Acts 16:14,15; Rom. 5:10; 8:7; 16:5; Col. 4:15; Philem. 1:2; Heb. 11:16; 1 John 3:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You show me the pilgrim’s way. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: not knowing how it works

Monday, April 24, 2023
    Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624
Meditation:
    For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
    —1 Corinthians 15:3-5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We believe that the death of Christ is just that point in history at which something absolutely unimaginable from outside shows through into our own world. And if we cannot picture even the atoms of which our own world is built, of course we are not going to be able to picture this. Indeed, if we found that we could fully understand it, that very fact would show it was not what it professes to be—the inconceivable, the uncreated, the thing from beyond nature, striking down into nature like lightning. You may ask what good it will be to us if we do not understand it. But that is easily answered. A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 55 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:3-5; Isa. 53:5; Mark 9:23-24; John 6:32-35,48-58; Rom. 5:8-9; Eph. 3:8-10,16-19; Phil. 4:7; Col. 1:25-27; 2:2-3; 3:3; 1 Pet. 3:18-20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, somehow I am healed by Your stripes. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Foster: our poverty

Sunday, April 23, 2023
    Feast of George, Martyr, Patron of England, c.304
    Commemoration of Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1988
Meditation:
In your anger do not sin;
    when you are on your beds,
    search your hearts and be silent.
    —Psalm 4:4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Unfortunately, contemporary men and women simply do not value self-knowledge in the same way that all preceding generations have. For us technocratic knowledge reigns supreme. Even when we pursue self-knowledge, we all too often reduce it to a hedonistic search for personal peace and prosperity. How poor we are! Even the pagan philosophers were wiser than this generation. They knew that an unexamined life was not worth living.
    ... Richard J. Foster (b. 1942), Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, HarperCollins, 1992, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 4:4; 26:2; 139:1,23-24; Lam. 3:40; Hag. 1:7; Rom. 8:26-27; 12:1; 1 Cor. 2:10; 11:27-31; 2 Cor. 13:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I seek You to show me my faults. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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