Francis: joy

Sunday, October 4, 2026
    Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor, 1226
Meditation:
    When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
    —Matthew 6:16-18 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Study always to have Joy, for it befits not the servant of God to show before his brother or another sadness or a troubled face.
    ... St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), The Mirror of Perfection [c. 1280], tr. Robert Steele, London: J.M. Dent, 1903, p. 141 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:16-18; Mark 2:18; Luke 2:10; 10:21; John 15:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to maintain a cheerful demeanor. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: the Bible as literature?

Saturday, October 3, 2026
    Commemoration of William Morris, Artist, Writer, 1896
    Commemoration of George Kennedy Bell, Bishop of Chichester, Ecumenist, Peacemaker, 1958
Meditation:
    This is what God the LORD says—he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
    “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
    —Isaiah 42:5-7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In most parts of the Bible, everything is implicitly or explicitly introduced with “Thus saith the Lord.” It is... not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite—it excludes or repels—the merely aesthetic approach. You can read it as literature only by a tour de force... It demands incessantly to be taken on its own terms: it will not continue to give literary delight very long, except to those who go to it for something quite different. I predict that it will in the future be read, as it always has been read, almost exclusively by Christians.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), They Asked for a Paper, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1962, p. 49 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 42:5-7; 28:16; Hag. 2:6-7; Mark 12:36; 1 Cor. 14:3,22; 1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Pet. 1:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word is both beautiful and powerful. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phillips: reading as an adult

Friday, October 2, 2026
Meditation:
    For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
    —Colossians 2:1-3 (ESV)
Quotation:
    The testimony of the New Testament cannot be lightly disregarded, nor can the claims of Christ be airily dismissed. Many otherwise intelligent people have never read with adult attention either the four Gospels or the Letters of the New Testament. When they so do, to my certain knowledge, they not infrequently become converted. Indeed, I know of no adult who has seriously studied the New Testament and rejected the stories of Christ as mythical or the evidence of changed lives in the Letters as mere fabrication.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), God With Us: a Message for Christmas, London: Epworth Press, 1957, p. 11 (see the book)
    See also Col. 2:1-3; Acts 4:31; 2 Cor. 4:2; Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12; 13:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I praise You for rescuing me from a life of skepticism and doubt. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: new every morning

Thursday, October 1, 2026
    Commemoration of Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, Apostle of the Franks, 533
    Commemoration of Thérèse of Lisieux, Carmelite Nun, Spiritual Writer, 1897
Meditation:
    For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
    —1 Corinthians 15:22 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Receive therefore every day as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life; meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God’s goodness, as if you had seen it, and all things, new-created upon your account: and under the sense of so great a blessing, let your joyful heart praise and magnify so good and glorious a Creator.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 248-249 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:22; Ps. 8:1; 30:5; 2 Cor. 4:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I praise You and thank You for new life this day. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chadwick: springing the trap

Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Meditation:
    And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
    —Mark 11:27-33 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Here [Mark 11:27-33] they discerned a flaw, a heresy; and they would force Him either to make a fatal claim, or else to moderate His pretensions at their bidding, which would promptly restore their lost influence and leadership.
    Nor need we shrink from confessing that our Lord was justly open to such reproach, unless He was indeed Divine, unless He was deliberately preparing His followers for that astonishing revelation, soon to come, which threw the Church upon her knees in adoration of her God manifest in flesh.
    ... G. A. Chadwick (1840-1923), The Gospel According to St. Mark, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891, p. 131 (see the book)
    See also Mark 11:27-33; Matt. 23:21-27; 26:3-4; Luke 20:1-8; 20:40; 22:2; John 5:18; 7:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You come to my heart with truth and power. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Reid: the language of the Gospel

Tuesday, September 29, 2026
    Feast of Michael & All Angels
Meditation:
    While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest id eas.)
    Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”
    
    —Acts 17:16-23 (ESV)
Quotation:
    If those who say that we must preach the same message as Paul and the other apostles mean that we should also exhibit the same adaptability and sensitivity to the background culture, then they are right... If, however, they mean that we should expect results merely by repeating the actual phrases found in the New Testament, then they are mistaken. They are making, in fact, one of the basic mistakes in verbal communication, which is to confuse words with what they describe. The gospel is something God has done, not a series of phrases describing it.
    Saying this does not undermine the Christian’s belief in the inspiration of the Bible, for the important thing about the Bible is what it talks about, rather than the way it does the talking. If we considered that there was the same degree of essential inspiration in the way it does the talking, then we would have to insist that every Christian learn Hebrew and Greek. The mere fact that we in the Western world read translations of the scriptures is a clear admission that times and cultures have changed.
    ... Gavin Reid (b. 1934), The Gagging of God, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1969, p. 65 (see the book)
    See also Acts 17:16-23; Isa. 28:9-12; Acts 2:7-11; 1 Cor. 14:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You speak to all people in their own language. Show me what I must do to carry the Gospel to those You have chosen. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Percy: They cast their nets in Galilee

Monday, September 28, 2026
Meditation:
    As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
    “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
    —Matthew 4:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
They cast their nets in Galilee, just off the hills of brown;
Such happy, simple fisherfolk, before the Lord came down.
Contented, peaceful fishermen, before they ever knew
The peace of God that filled their hearts brimful, and broke them too.

Young John who trimmed the flapping sail, homeless in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net, head-down was crucified.
The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod;
Yet, brothers, pray for but one thing—the marvelous peace of God.
    ... William Alexander Percy (1885-1943), Enzio’s Kingdom: and other poems, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1924, p. 9 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 4:18-19; 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 17:33; John 12:25; 14:27; Rom. 5:1-2; Phil. 4:7
Quiet time reflection:
    I thank You and praise You for Your victory in the church.

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