August 1, Feast of St Aidan of Lindesfarn

Give judgement for me, O Lord, for I have lived with integrity.
Psalm 26:1

Monday, August 30, 2010

Lead me in your truth, O Lord, and teach me. 

                                      

Antiphon: Psalm 25  

August 29, The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Praise  

the Lord from the heavens,

 praise him from the heights, 

Praise him, all you angels of his, 

Praise him all you heavenly host. 

Psalm 148: 1,2 

August 28, Feast of St Augustine of Hippo

The Lord gives 

victory to his anointed. 

Antiphon on 

Psalm 20

Friday August 27

Iona

    My boundaries enclose a pleasant land, indeed I have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16:8

August 26, St Louise de France

I love you, O Lord, my strength

Psalm 18:1

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Open my eyes that I may see the wonders of your love. 

Based on Psalm  119: 18

                                           -+-

Psalm 119:18 in the Hebrew Bible, of course,  says “law.”  The first time I substituted  “love” for “law” I didn’t know I had done it until after my meditation time. And it led to more pondering. It seems to me that “law” is not as near as “love” to the original Hebrew meaning of law - it calls forth not dour obedience but joyful response   to God’s love- it IS I believe an expression of God’s love. On Jesus callt o love God, self and neighbor, “hangs all the law and the prohhets” we are told.  On THIS hangs one for the reasons for starting this blog but I’ll have to tell that story later. 

August 24, Feast of St Bartholomew

       

  Teach me 

 your way,

         O Lord, 

                and            

      I will walk

           in your         truth. 

Psalm 86:11

Monday morning August 23

Photograph by Anne Gabeler 

   

Surely it is God who saves me, I will trust in him and not be afraid 

Canticle 9

Aug 22, The 13th Sunday after Pentecost

Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam

Happy are they  who have the God of Jacob

for their help, whose hope is in the Lord 

their God.                         Psalm 146:4

Still Saturday, still good

God saw everything he had made 

and, behold, it was very good.  

Saturday August 21

God saw everything he had made and, behold, it was very good.  Saturday antiphon on Canticle 12 

St Bernard of Clarvaux (12th c)

Lord, open our lips, and our mouth 

        shall proclaim your praise.  

The Invititory at Morning Prayer

Plaque in Regensburg Germany

It is I; do not be afraid. John 6:20

Evening Prayer

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits for him; 
in his word is my hope. Psalm 130:5

Feast of WIlliam Porcher BuBose

Early in the morning I cry out to you, for in your word is my hope.

                             Psalm 119:147

Tuesday August 17th

    Our help comes from the Lord

  the  maker of heaven and earth. 
                                  Psalm 121:2

The Feast of St Mary the Virgin (transfered)

  

                 Blessed be the Lord,

 the God of Israel, for he has come 
    to his people and set them free. 
                     The Benedictus (BCP Page 92)

The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

 


                                        Photograph by Anne Gaebler

              I called to the Lord 

                           in my distress, 

           the Lord answered 

           by setting me free. Psalm 118:5

Feast of Jonathon Daniels

  

                                                           Wunderground Photograph

                       Worship the Lord 

                 in the beauty of holiness; 

                  Come, let us adore him. 

                 Antiphon on the Venite 

feast of Jeremy Taylor, August 13

                                                                                                                                               Les Baux-de-Provence   

 

...the Lord looks down from his holy place on high; from heaven he  beheld the earth; That he might hear the groan of the captive, and set free those condemned to die.  Psalm 102: 19-20

Feast of Florence Nightingale, August 12

     

Let the hearts                                 
of those who 
seek the Lord                      
rejoice. 
                                                      Psalm 105:3b                                                                      

August 11, Feast of St Clare

The sea is God's for he made it, and his hands have molded the dry land.  

         The Venite at Morning Prayer (Psalm 95:5)

September 2010 Saints and Seasons (trying again)

Saints and Seasons 

I was eating breakfast on another gray Sunday morning. Looking up, I saw two hummingbirds dancing around the feeder; one landed and it looked like the other would too. Generally, if one is busy eating, the second comes dive bombing down and chases the other away.  Occasionally though, especially if two arrive simultaneously, they will dance around each other for a bit and finally light on either side of the feeder and be at peace.  It’s a wonderful moment when two share the feeder. But that didn’t happen this time. For some unknown reason, the one decided that the other had to go, and the chase was on!

I thought, this is just the way God sees us. He doesn’t get too disappointed at our lapses. God does not demand perfection - we do. The wise AA program calls for “patient improvement,” and that in itself is hard enough. 

God the Creator of it all, delights when the two hummingbirds sit at the feeder, each drinking of the life-sustaining nectar. But He doesn’t expect it. God knows our human nature; having both created it and shared it, when one chases the other off, God knows there will always be another time, another chance. 

The saving grace for us - and where the analogy breaks down - is the we are humans, being, not hummingbirds. We can grow and change and choose. We can, and do, take lessons from the moments when we sit together at the feeder as well as from those times when we drive the other away - or are driven. And we can choose which course to take. Sometimes. At other times, something happens and in a split second, we are off!  Old reactions set in, old patterns get triggered and we transgress by “what we have done and by what we have left undone.” But even then, we are given the grace to stop and see what happened, which is why confession, and absolution, are woven into our daily and weekly worship. God doesn’t expect us to be prefect, only willing to begin again. 

But the vision of God sitting and watching His creation  not just with tolerance but with delight, not just with forbearance but with a chuckle, and most of all with ineffable love, will stay with me for a long time.

Louise Buck        September 2010

@ Saints and Seasons is a monthly (except for August) column written by Louise Buck for "The Gospel at Saint David's," the monthly magazine of St David's Episcopal Church, 5050 Milton St, San Diego CA.

                                        

Sunset on the Main RIver at Wertheim

One day tells its tale to another 

   and one night imparts knowledge to another.

    Although they have no words or language, 

    their sound has gone out to all the world. Psalm 19:2,3