Tuesday

Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from 

good will. ... 

What does it matter? Just this, 

that Christ is proclaimed in every way.... 

Only, live your life 

in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. 

                                     Philippians  1:15, 18, 27 

First I read  Psalm 45... that’s usually  a wash for me. And then there came I Kings 16:23-34 - even worse! For Years I have wondered, as I bombed through it, why in God's name (literally) were we reading THIS and how can THIS be helpful to us?  Today I suddenly got a tiny glimpse of  the broad sweep of God's will for the cosmos being done in spite of, around and through us all.... We can stand in the way, we can get it wrong, we can be a temporary building block  or a stumbling stone, we can even think we are one and be the other, out of ignorance or pride, or a limited vision.....  That was helpful to me but it didn’t give me the needed  place to rest and meditate.S o I went on to Philippians. And I got the last verse. But then I had a vision of this pulpit in Melk Abbey. What were the motives of the people who built it? The abbots who have administered it through the hundreds of years? We cannot know the whole purpose of God (some terrible things in my life have turned out to be huge blessings) nor can we judge the motives of others though we can "look and pass on" as John of the Cross advises. What DOES matter, in the end , all we can do , is to try, one day at a time, to "live a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ." The outcome is God's.   

               God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year, 

               God is working his purpose out, and the time is drawing near, ...

                Give ear to me, ye continents, ye isles, give ear to me,

               that the earth shall be filled with the gory of God 

                as the waters cover the sea.    From Hymn 534 

Labor Day

this is my prayer for you, that your love overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best   Philippians 1:9

Sunday

My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you,

as in a  barren and dry land 

where there is no water. Psalm 63:1b

September Saints and Seasons

The antiphon on the first psalm at Morning Prayer (131) was “Whoever humbles himself as a little child shall be great in the kingdom of heaven.” And the Office ended with the Collect for Guidance, that ”in all the cares and occupations of this life, we may not forget you, but may remember that we are every walking in your sight....”  With that as my mediation verse, I walked down to the early morning Eucharist. Phil and I were the only ones there, as we often are these days. Usually we sit in silent mediation. But we’ve been together doing this for so many years now, sharing our personal and communal ups and downs that, if we are so moved, and if it’s just the two of us, we’ll chat about things before Fr Jim arrives. Phil has been at St David’s even longer than I have, a faithful and quiet presence who always recalls me to the Divine Presence. I need to be reminded that we are, together, a royal priesthood, a people called out of darkness into the Light.  Because I forget. The world’s messages are loud and clear and persistent, and the darkness is often nearby. 

At the Eucharist, we celebrated some folks new to the church calendar, clergy from Colonial times. The phrase that struck us was that one of these guys “viewed the ordered liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer and Anglican polity as the proper alternative to the dissent and local power struggles of the Congregationalists in which he lived and worked.”  This summed up what we had been saying in our time together. The surrounding culture is full of dissent and struggle and it spills over into how we respond in our life together.  The answer is spiritual, and the direction we all need is available to us as we each listen in the silence of prayer and worship, and as we reason together with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Dissent and struggle we will have with us always. But if I consistently, persistently,  sit and listen to God speaking in my depths and let Him fill my heart and expand my vision, I’ll have a chance. As Bill Mahedy said “Feed the light, The darkness feeds itself.”                           September 2011       

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

Saturday

God saw everything that he had made and, 

behold, it was very good. 

The Friday of Labor Day Week-end

Be 

my 

strong 

rock, 

a 

castle 

to 

keep 

me 

safe. 

Psalm 31:3 

Thursday, the first day of September

Lord, open our lips. 

And our mouth 

shall proclaim 

your praise.

The Invittory said as a versicle 

and response, the way the Daily Office has started 

in the Episcopal Church for years, and in monastic communities the world over for even longer. We seem to need the reminder!