Category: Life in Christ

Morning Prayer, 24 Jan – John 4:46-54 ~ the Giver of Life

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentence – Oswald of Northumbria (605-42)

This day is Your gift to me; I take it, Lord, from Your hand and thank You for the wonder of it.

May I feel Your presence at the heart of my desire, and so know it for Your desire for me. Thus shall I prosper, thus see that my purpose is from You, thus have the power to do the good which endures.

Morning readings

John 4:46-54 ESV:

man with child

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

Reflections / Prayer:

A father’s faith

Faith is belief that God is who and what Jesus reveals him to be, the loving Father, and it is trust in this God. This official seems to have something of this faith.

This faith is confirmed and deepened when he learns of his son’s recovery. His faith in Jesus as one who is willing and able to heal the son of a Herodian official progressed to faith in Jesus’ bare word.

Now at the end of the story it is simply said that he believed, with no other qualifiers. Jesus is the giver of life.(The IVP New Testament Commentary Series)

__________

The signs of glory

Twice now Jesus has moved into Galilee, and both times he has performed signs that have pointed to God’s gratuitous generosity: the first one, at the wedding, and the second one involving healing.

These two signs in Galilee stand in contrast to the many signs he did in Jerusalem, for each of them are received in faith by someone, whereas the signs in Jerusalem were not.

Now Jesus will go to Jerusalem again, and this time he will perform a provocative, revelatory act that is grasped by the Jewish opponents… but received with hostility.(The IVP New Testament Commentary Series)

__________

St Francis de Sales (21 August 1567 – 28 December 1622) Roman Catholic Church

“The greatest defect we have in our prayers and in all that happens to us, particularly in that which concerns tribulations, is our lack of confidence … Faith is great or little according to the measure of our confidence.” ― St. Francis de Sales

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__________

Canticle:

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

Peanut Gallery: A brief word of explanation – the general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) The Scripture readings are primarily from the Gospel of John, with the intent to complete the reading by Easter. Other Scriptures which illuminate the Gospel of John will be included along the way.

Reflections from various saints will be included as their memorial days occur during the calendar year.

On Sundays, I’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world.

Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.

9 (More) Things You Should Know About Roe v. Wade ~ Reblog

THE GOSPEL COALITION

Joe Carter
TGC Blog | January 22, 2014

image

Today is the forty-first anniversary of the landmark abortion decision, Roe v. Wade, in which the Supreme Court eliminated the abortion laws of all 50 states, and in the companion case of Doe v. Bolton — which was released on the same day — which eliminated state health and safety regulations of abortion. Last year I noted nine things everyone should know about Roe. Here are nine more:

1. The case was filed by Norma McCorvey, known in court documents as Jane ROE against Henry WADE, the district attorney of Dallas County from 1951 to 1987, who enforced a Texas law that prohibited abortion, except to save a woman’s life.

2. In 1969, McCorvey was 22 years old, divorced, homeless, and pregnant for the third time (she had placed her first two children for adoption). An adoption agency connected her with two young lawyers fresh out of law school who were eager to challenge the Texas statutes on abortion. McCorvey only met with her lawyers twice-once for beer and pizza, the other time to sign an affidavit (which she didn’t read). In order to speed things up McCorvey lied and told them she had been raped. She never appeared in court, and she found out about the infamous ruling from the newspapers. The baby she was seeking to abort was born and placed for adoption.

3. When McCorvey met her lawyers she didn’t know the meaning of “abortion.” Her lawyers told her that abortion just dealt with a piece of tissue, and that it was like passing a period rather than the termination of a distinct, living, and whole human organism. Abortion was a taboo topic in 1970, and Norma had dropped out of school at the age of 14. She knew that John Wayne movies talked about “aborting the mission,” so she thought it meant to “go back”—as in, going back to not being pregnant. She honestly believed “abortion” meant a child was prevented from coming into existence.

4. In the late-1990s, McCorvey was working at a Dallas abortion clinic when the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue moved its offices next door. She says Rev. Phillip Benham, Operation Rescue’s national director, started “sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ” with her. She later became a Christian and committed pro-life advocate.

5. Together, Roe and Doe effectively forbid states from prohibiting abortion even in the final stages of pregnancy. The Court said (in the 1992 Casey decision) that “[w]e reject the trimester framework, which we do not consider to be part of the essential holding of Roe.”

6. The Court’s majority relied heavily on popular, but unproved and later disproved, 1970s-era evidence that there was an urgent need for population control in the United States. As legal scholar Clark Forsythe explains, “Fear of ‘the population crisis’ was a huge influence. [The Court] drank that in without any trial or evidence or expert opinion in the lower courts. There was no evidence. There was no record. They absorbed that through the media.”

7. Without any record evidence, the court in 1973 also adopted the medical myth that “abortion was safer than childbirth.” That influential myth, says Forsythe, has been told to millions of women considering abortion ever since. “It was wrong in 1973, and it’s wrong today. The myth is based on the mechanical comparison of the published U.S. maternal (childbirth) mortality rate and the published U.S. abortion mortality rate. These two rates are like apples and oranges; what goes into their numerators and denominators is completely different.”

8. Many pro-life advocates mistakenly believe that state laws to define human life as beginning at conception (or fertilization) would pose as challenge to Roe. But as Forsythe notes, “no state can – by statute or constitutional amendment – change the meaning of the 14th Amendment to the federal constitution.” Additionally, he explains, “not one justice on the current Supreme Court supports the proposition that the unborn are protected as “persons” within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. Not one. All have rejected it, explicitly or implicitly.”

9. Many Americans believe the myth that “overturning” Roe would make abortion immediately illegal everywhere. However, most states have repealed their pre-Roe prohibitions. Fifteen other states have state judicial versions of Roe that would prevent any prohibitions. The reality is that if Roe were overturned today, abortion would be legal tomorrow, up to viability, in at least 42 states and probably all 50.

 

Morning Prayer, 23 Jan – John 4:31-45 ~ come to the well

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentence – Chad of Lichfield (?-672)

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God.

On Your path, O my God, and not my own, be all my journeying. Rule this heart of mine that it be only Yours.

Morning readings

John 4:31-45 ESV:

Jesus and the Woman at the Well. German image, circa 1420
Jesus and the Woman at the Well.
German image, circa 1420

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

Reflections / Prayer:

Sowing and reaping

Jesus’ disciples are to reap the harvest of what others have sowed and labored over. Their ministry is dependent on that of earlier laborers – all those through whom the Father has been accomplishing his work, the work that is now coming to a perfect completion in Jesus.

This ministry of the disciples is an extension of Jesus’ own work — doing the Father’s will by the presence of the Spirit and embodying and proclaiming the eternal life available in Jesus, the one who completed the Father’s work.
(The IVP New Testament Commentary Series)

__________

The harvest

The faith of the Samaritans who went out to see Jesus goes from being based on the woman’s testimony to being based on their own experience. They had heard about Jesus, and now they needed to hear him for themselves.

The lesson: our faith also must be based on hearing Jesus for ourselves, not just on hearing about him. These Samaritans have seen no deeds of power, no signs, but have come to have faith in Jesus.

We hear about Jesus as we read the Gospels in the light of the insight the Spirit has provided to the church, but we must come to the well ourselves to meet him through the means of grace he provides.
(The IVP New Testament Commentary Series)

__________

True worshippers

The Samaritans want Jesus to stay with them for two days. The initial religious barrier that had kept the woman from Jesus has broken down… they are not put off by Jesus’ origin.

The Father is seeking worshipers from among the Jews but also from the whole world… and, in the presence of Jesus, these Samaritans come to believe that he is the Savior of the world.
(The IVP New Testament Commentary Series)

__________

Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835 – January 23, 1893) Episcopal Church, Boston, MA

“The danger facing all of us – let me say it again, for one feels it tremendously – is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel that life has no meaning at all – not these things.

“The danger is that we may fail to perceive life’s greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to render the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God – and be content to have it so – that is the danger.

“That some day we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with the husks and trappings of life – and have really missed life itself. For life without God, to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible.

“That is what one prays one’s friends may be spared – satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle and thrill which come from a friendship with the Father.” – Phillips Brooks

__________

Canticle:

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

Peanut Gallery: A brief word of explanation – the general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) The Scripture readings are primarily from the Gospel of John, with the intent to complete the reading by Easter. Other Scriptures which illuminate the Gospel of John will be included along the way.

Reflections from various saints will be included as their memorial days occur during the calendar year.

On Sundays, I’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world.

Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.

19 Beautiful Reminders Why Americans March for Life Today – Reblog

Today, tens of thousands of people from around the country will gather in Washington to brave the cold for a cause they believe in. Some are marching for the first time, and others have been traveling to the nation’s capital since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. For the 41st year, they’ll meet again for the same reason — the sanctity of life.

We’re also celebrating life today, and we hope you will, too. Here are 19 moving reminders of the beauty of new life:

>>> Learn more: “How to Speak Up for Life,” produced by Heritage in collaboration with Alliance Defending Freedom, Americans United for Life, Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund

Morning Prayer, 22 Jan – John 4:1-30 ~ well, well, well

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentence – Aidan of Lindisfarne (?-651)

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil and grant us peace in our day. In Your mercy, Lord, keep us free from sin, and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Let Your Kingdom come, Lord, in me.

Morning readings

John 4:1-30 ESV:

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Living Water Elspeth Young
Living Water
Elspeth Young

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Reflections / Prayer:

Water – divine appointment

[Jesus] moves because it is God’s will. He only does God’s will, and it is God’s will… that he meet this Samaritan woman….. There is no geographical necessity for going through Samaria. The necessity is due to God’s plan. The Father was sending him there to look for those who would worship him in spirit and truth.
(The IVP New Testament Commentary Series)

Living water – divine presence

Jacob gave a well that provides water, but Jesus is the giver of a greater gift, living water…. Jesus not only brings revelation of God but gives the Spirit by which this revelation is internalized in believers, giving birth to spirit.

The woman’s response seems disappointing… she is thinking about “running water” (indoor plumbing). Nevertheless, she makes a profound movement toward faith…. by asking for this marvelous private supply of running water… she has begun to believe in Jesus.

It is a source of great comfort to us to realize how patiently God works with each of us to lead us out of our misunderstanding… to come to ever deeper levels of faith, knowledge and union with God.
(The IVP New Testament Commentary Series)

Wellspring of living water – divine worship

To worship in spirit and truth means to worship as one who is spiritually alive, living in the new reality Jesus offers. Worshiping in spirit is connected to the fact that God is spirit. And worshiping in truth is connected with Jesus, the Messiah who explains everything.

Worshiping in spirit and truth is related to the very character of God and the identity of Christ. It is to worship in union with the Father, who is spirit, and according to the revelation of the Son, who is the truth. Indeed, it is to be taken into union with God through the Spirit.
(The IVP New Testament Commentary Series)

__________

You call me out upon the waters / The great unknown where feet may fail / And there I find You in the mystery / In oceans deep / My faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name / And keep my eyes above the waves / When oceans rise / My soul will rest in Your embrace / For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters / Your sovereign hand / Will be my guide / Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me / You’ve never failed and You won’t start now

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders / Let me walk upon the waters / Wherever You would call me / Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander / And my faith will be made stronger / In the presence of my Savior
__________

Leave me alone with God as much as may be. As the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore, make me an island, set apart, alone with You, God, holy to You.

Then with the turning of the tide, prepare me to carry Your presence to the busy world beyond, the world that rushes in on me, till the waves come again and fold me back to You.

Aidan of Lindisfarne (?-651)

Canticle:

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

Peanut Gallery: A brief word of explanation – the general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) The Scripture readings are primarily from the Gospel of John, with the intent to complete the reading by Easter. Other Scriptures which illuminate the Gospel of John will be included along the way.

Reflections from various saints will be included as their memorial days occur during the calendar year.

On Sundays, I’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world.

Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.