Tuesday evening

Blessed 

         be 

        the 

     Lord 

       day 

         by 

       day,

        the 

       God 

          of 

       our 

       salvation who bears our burdens. 

                                                     Psalm 68:19

The last day of January

   For 

   God 

   alone

   my 

   soul 

   in 

   silence waits; truly my hope is in him. 

                                              Psalm 62:6

Moving toward evening

             

            The 

            kingdom 

            of God 

            cannot 

            be bought 

            or won, 

            but is

            hidden 

            in the 

           ordinary. 

                               

               Forward Day by Day  3/20/06 Feast of St Joseph 

Another Monday

Oh that today 

you would hearken to his voice.                                                                 

                                           The Venite 

Sunday evening

Out 

of the mouths of infants and children your majesty is praised above the heavens. Psalm 8:2

The 4th Sunday after the Epiphany

The earth is the Lord’s and 

all
that 
is 
in
it;
the 

world

and
all 
who 
dwell 
therein.


Psalm 24:1

Saturday night (for Beebs and the Baby, Bean and Steve. And Grammy.)

you yourself created my innermost

parts; you 

knit me 

together 

in my 

mother’s 

womb.

I will thank you for I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful and I know it well. My body 

was not hidden from you, while I was being made 

in secret and woven in the depths of the earth. 

Psalm 139:12-14

Thomas Acquinas, Friar and Teacher 1294

            

            have 

            mercy 

            on us 

            and 

            forgive 

            us, 

            that 

            we 

            may 

            delight 

            in 

            your 

            will 

            and walk in your ways

                                          Confession at the Eucharist 

"now as we come to the setting of the sun and our eyes behold the Vesper light..."

Behold, 

you
look
for
truth
deep
within
me;
and
will

make me understand wisdom secretly. 

Psalm 51: 7

Lydia, Dorcas and Phoebe, helpers of the Apostles (from the Lutheran Calendar)

I waited pa-tiently upon the Lord, he stoop-ed to me and heard m cry. He lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and clay; he set my feet upon a high 

cliff and made my footing sure. 

He put a new song in mouth, a 

song of praise for my God; 

many shall see and stand 

in awe, and put their 

trust in the Lord. 

Psalm 40:1-3

Titus, Timothy and SIlas, companions f Paul on his missionary journeys

Offer to God a sac-rifice 
of thanks-giving, and make good your vows to the Most High. Psalm 50:14

Enventide

Lord Jesus Christ, stay with 
us for evening is at hand and the day is pat; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts and awaken hope... 

Collect for the Presence of Christ

close of day

Your faith-fulness remains from one gener-ation to another; it stands firm in the heavens. Psalm 119:90

The Conversion of St Paul, which bookends with the Confession of St Peter, ending the week Prayer for Christian unity.

The Lord 

is glori-ous 

in his 

saints (in all their wild and weird, conflicting, confusing and contrasting variety.) Come, let us adore him. 

I love that it is IN his saints.... God is seen IN us in all our wild and weird, conflicting, confusing and contrasting variety..              

                                        The Conversion of St Paul

     I always think “The Conversion of St Paul” is a misnomer. Although God knows he, (like you and me)  needed conversion along the way AS St Paul, today’s feast celebrates his conversion from Saul of Tarsus to the person who became St Paul. First he was literally thrown off his high horse, blinded for 3 days, led to Ananias, completely turned around and sent off in the opposite direction. The same guy who showed such zeal in destroying Christians then used the same energy and drive and personality to spread Christianity to an amazing degree. He obviously was not all that easy to live with, hence the need for on-going conversion. 

     Remember that he who was blinded by the light of Jesus Christ never actually met Jesus in the flesh. I always forget that this Apostle to the Jews is like you and me -  coming after the earthly life and ministry of the Lord.   When I was at St Matthew’s going to grade school, where I first met and learned to love this Lord who walked with me among the sycamore trees there, we had chapel every day. One of the hymns we sang from the Hymns for Children section of the real Hymnal (1949!) said 

          I wish that his hands had been laid on my head,

          that his arms thrown around me, 

          and I might have seen his kind look when he said

          “Let the little ones come unto me.”  

I never had that privilege and neither did he, though in truth hands were laid on my head and his and arms have been thrown around us in welcome and love. And yet our conversions too are unmistakable, though perhaps less dramatic in experience and effect that Paul’s.

     I think of ALL the conversions that were required, and are required still, for us to believe and become faithful to God’s call.  Not just Paul but what about Ananias who was told unequivocally (no mere suggestion here!) to go to such and such a house where he would find Saul, the arch enemy of this small band, these people of he Way, and lay hands on him to restore his sight and pray that he be filled with the Holy Spirit.  What faith and obedience it took to do that! That little snippet is all we hear of Ananias story. . We are never converted alone. 

      Paul was no stranger to the streets of Athens. I love Jack Lindquist’s description of being on a street in Athens and  seeing a sign:    

             METANOIA! .... TURN AROUDN!! 

   NOW! YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY! 

Just so. 

Who can tell how often he offends? 

Cleanse me from my secret fault.  

Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins;  let them not get dominion over me. 

Ps 19:12-13

Tuesday

He has made us a king-dom 

of priests to serve ou God.  Canticle 18

 “What’s your book going to be about?” I was asked.... 

“It’s going to be about how the institutional church has missed the mark of what it ought to be about.” I replied. 

“The  institutional church?”” he puzzled.

“What other church is there?”  

“The people of God,” I replied. “The baptized community.” 

...The little band, the church in St Paul’s day, needed an organization, a structure, an institution to maintain itself, but the institution took over the little band... 

I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, he by whom the reign of God has been made known - and he whom the institutional church, from the resurrection community to the present day, has rejected since the day of his death in favor of something more reasonable, more controlled and more controllable...

The institution has missed its high calling because we the people have missed ours.” 

Verna Dozier, The Dream of God 

Monday

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; Come, let us adore him. Antiphon on the Venite

Sunday night

Bless the Lord,

O 

my 

soul, and 

all 

that

 is 

within 

me, bless his holy Name. 

Psalm 103:1

The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Now the Lord said to Ab-ram, “Go from your coun-try and your kin-dred and your fa-ther's house to the land that I will show you... So Abram went... and came and settled by the oaks of Manre which are at Hebron...Genesis12:1,4,13:18           

           This was the oath that God swore 

           to our father Abraham... to set us 

           free...  The Benedictus

First Vespers of the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Grant us grace, 

O 

Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior.... 

Collect for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany 

Saturday

There is, 

on the 

one hand, (loss and grief and crisis, diminish-ment and suffering, the seeming abrogation of all that we know and hold dear); there is, on the other hand, the introduction 

of a  better hope through which 

we approach (a new future in) God. 

                Based on Hebrews 7:18-19 

You’ll have to read it to see what it really says! 

           

Friday morning

New every morn-ing 

is the love, our waking and uprising prove, through sleep and darkness safely brought, restored 

to life and power and thought.

Hymn #10

Friday, darker

The 

extent 

of the 

illumination

is not 

dependent 

on the 

ray of 

sunshine 

but 

on the 

window.

John of the Cross

The eve of Friday

     Love is the only root that bears

           humility on its branches. 

  

          A quote from Forward Day By Day 1960

Thursday early

Put your trust

in the 

Lord and do good; 

dwell in

the land and feed on its riches. Psalm 37:3

evening

I called to the Lord in my distress; the Lord answered by setting me free.

 Psalm 118:5

The Confession of Peter the Apostle, which begins the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

     

     Remember

     your 

     word 

     to 

     your 

     servant

     because your word gives me hope.

                                              Psalm 119:49

Dear God, we desire to know what to do today under the remembrance of yesterday's trials and today’s temptations, We surrender our worried way to you and ask for faith enough to know and strength enough to do as your will. 

Forward Day by Day from a day in August 1977

Tuesday Evening

                

               

                with 

                you 

                is 

                the 

                well

                of

                life 

                and 

                in 

                your

                light 

                we see light. Psalm 36:9

St Antony, Abbot in Egypt d 356 and my friend Marilee's birth day

Lord, open 

our 

lips.

And 

our mouth shall proclaim your praise. 

"I have a dream," Still.

We live in the middle of  irony that we so often miss. Today we as a nation celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.  The trash collectors did not have a holiday; the stock market did. 

Monday , Martin Luther King Jr Day

Lead 

me 

in 

your

truth, 

O 

Lord, 

and 

teach 

me.

Antiphon: Psalm 25

The Second Sunday of Epiphany

Let 

everything 

that has 

breath 

praise

 the Lord. 

Hallelujah!

                        The last verse of the last psalm

Saturday Vesper Light

I love the Lord because he has heard the voice of my supplication, because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I have called upon him. Psalm 110:1

Saturday

May God answer you 
in the 
day of 
trouble; the Name 
of the God of Jacob defend you. Psalm 20:1 

Thank God It's Friday!

  

         Worship 

         the Lord

         in the 

         beauty of 

         holiness; 

         Come 

         let us 

         adore 

         him.  

                            An antiphon on the Venite in Ordinary Time’

The Feast of St Aelred, Abbot of Rievalux (1109-1167)

I 

love 

you, 

O 

Lord, 

my 

strength

My 

God...

 in 

whom 

I 

put 

my 

trust

Almighty God, you endowed the abbot Aelred with the gift of Christian friendship and the wisdom to lead others in the way of holiness. Grant to your people that same spirit of mutual affection that, in loving one another, we may know the love of Christ.  We thank you for friendships of the heart and for those, both living and now dead, who serve as our mirrors and who light the way for us. 

Wednesday still

Teach 

me 

to care 

and 

not 

to care; 

teach me to be still.                   TS Elliot

Wednesday

    

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you. Canticle 11

Tuesday Evening Prayer

Surely, 

O Lord, 

you 

behold

trouble

and 

misery. 

Rise up, 

O Lord, 

lift up  

your hand,

O God; 

do not forget the afflicted. 

                                       Psalm 10:14a v.12